Kids - Uh Oh Jonah!
A Big Storm - Week 2
October 12-13, 2019 |
Uh-Oh Jonah! is a four-part series about Jonah’s disobedience and God’s persistent love. Through Jonah’s story, kids will understand that even when we disobey, God loves us!
WORSHIP
BIBLE VERSE
“God shows his great love for us,” Romans 5:8.
GROUP Q&A
What happened to Jonah? (He was thrown overboard.)
What happened to the sailors and the boat when Jonah was thrown overboard? (The storm stopped and the sailors believed in God.)
Does God still love Jonah even though he disobeyed? (Yes!)
PARENT BIBLE STUDY
Read: Jonah 1
Jonah thought he could run away from God in a boat on the ocean, but he forgot that God made the ocean. Not only could God do anything to bring Jonah back to obedience, he was also far too loving to let Jonah run away.
So, God chased Jonah with a storm—a fierce storm. The storm was so intense that the pagan sailors on the boat were willing to call on any god to stop it. Jonah told the sailors that his god was the God of the land and the seas. He knew that he was the cause of the storm, but he was so far in over his head into disobedience that he was willing to die rather than obey, so he told the sailors to throw him overboard.
Of course, God was still bigger and still too loving to let Jonah take the easy way out. Rather than allowing the stormy seas to take Jonah’s life, God sent a fish to save him. God’s mercy swallowed Jonah up in the form of a fish. And there in the stinky fish belly, God gave Jonah a second chance.
Like Jonah, we disobey and convince ourselves that it’s actually possible to run away from God. But God is in fierce pursuit of us. For Jonah, the storm and the fish were not exactly gentle demonstrations of God’s grace. We can relate. It most likely isn’t in a storm or a fish gulp, but we’ve all collided with God’s grace and mercy in ways that crash over us, swallow us up, and make us uncomfortable. God knows our stubborn hearts. He knows that sometimes we need to come face to face with the strength of his love for us.
Jonah’s story reminds us that God’s grace is not always gentle, but it is always good. God will never give up on us. We cannot be too bad, too far gone, too defiant, too lost, or too sinful for God’s mercy and love to reach us.
How have you experienced God’s fierce pursuit of you?
Think about a time God’s grace to you wasn’t gentle, but you knew it was good. How did it shape your view of grace?
