7.15.24

This week we begin a short series in the book of Jonah. And it's a very telling book for us, as it describes how sin works in our hearts. Though the word sin doesn’t occur anywhere in the book, it's a living picture for us of how it works itself out in our lives.

And what Jonah shows us here is that sin is essentially running from God. We tend to think of sins as really bad things that we do. But what this book exposes is that anything we do, whether it's really “bad” or apparently “good”…anything that directs our hearts away from who God designed us to be, that is the heart of sin.

Even more, what this book exposes is that - you can know and understand what sin is - you can even be a religious professional - and yet still be blinded from the subtle effects of sin in your own heart.

Clearly Jonah thought he understood what sin was. After all, that's the very reason he didn’t want to go to Nineveh: it was filled with really bad, sinful people. And he despised them for their sinful ways. But what he missed was the heart of his own sin beneath his cold, judgmental heart. HIs own sin was masked by his morally superior devotion to God.

Begin praying today that God would prepare you for Sunday by revealing, even now, the many subtle ways in which sin - running from God and his design for your life - masks itself beneath the veneer of moral superiority.