I did it my way!

"But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD." Jonah 1:3

Frank Sinatra 1968
And now, the end is here

And so I face the final curtain

My friend, I'll say it clear

I'll state my case, of which I'm certain

I've lived a life that's full

I traveled each and ev'ry highway

And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Regrets, I've had a few

But then again, too few to mention

I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway

And more, much more than this, I did it my way

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew

When I bit off more than I could chew

But through it all, when there was doubt

I ate it up and spit it out

I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way

I've loved, I've laughed and cried

I've had my fill, my share of losing

And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing

To think I did all that

And may I say, not in a shy way,"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"

For what is a man, what has he got?

If not himself, then he has naught

To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels

The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

We have been talking about Jonah and how God spoke to him. He told Jonah exactly what He wanted him to do. God wanted to use him to reach out to a wicked people group. But Jonah had absolutely no desire to go to Ninevah and speak to people that he greatly feared and hated. In his mind, Jonah had legitimate reasons for not wanting to
preach to the Ninevites.

When God does speak, He will often ask us to do things we don’t want to do. To the degree that we trust God is the degree that we obey God. We must be convinced that He is wise beyond our comprehension and that His way is ultimately best even if we cannot see it in the present.

Jonah like Frank had ideas doing something completely different. Do you have something that you know God has said to you that you just don’t want to do? Do you believe if you obeyed Him your life would be worse? Jonah did. And I guess Frank did too. At the heart of being a Christian is the issue of will. Whose way are we going to go? My way or God’s way. This is why we are called followers of Jesus. He has a good and perfect will that he wants executed in the earth. That is the will of His Father. Our responsibility is to surrender our will to Him each day and let His voice guide us. Or I can do it my way. My choice.

I gotta go for now. I have two things to do that I don’t want to do.