They believed!

Let's stay in Jonah today.  I'm not sure why I've decided to start at the end and work my way around, but apparently that's what I'm doing!  ;0)  Just bear with me, ok?

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:  "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days. On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.  Jonah 3:1-5

Oh, how I pray that I will respond like the Ninevites when God speaks to me, or about me!  Notice that they believed God immediately!  And it couldn't have been the messenger, right?  Jonah didn't want to be there, and so it stands to reason that .... let's just his perhaps his sermons were delivered through clenched teeth.

But in what may be the greatest sentence ever written, "The Ninevites believed God."  And they changed their ways!

Now, they had been threatened with destruction; of course that had a major influence on their revival!  But think about it:  Jonah was threatened with death by a storm, by a whale, and he still didn't change.  The Ninevites did, however, and that's where we can focus our attention.

There's really not a lot of explaining to do, is there?  God called, they answered.  And it just makes me wonder:  when God calls me, am I willing?  When He points out my sin, do I listen?  When He offers redemption, do I jump?  Or do I sit around, whining, pretending to be deaf, dumb and blind?

I want to be like the Ninevites!!  How about your?