Joseph, my nine-year-old, has a favourite chocolate bun from our local bakery.
It isn’t anything particularly special. At least, not to me. But to him, it could make his day. The problem is, they’re hardly ever available. Every time we stopped by, the answer was always the same. They had either sold out or they hadn’t received any that day. After several disappointing visits, I could see the excitement slowly draining from his face. He had begun to expect disappointment.
So I started calling the bakery. Sometimes, twice a day. The man who owned the bakery was always polite in letting me know that they weren’t available, but he never remembered to call back when they restocked.
So I kept calling. I knew I was probably becoming that customer – the thought wasn’t strong enough to deter me though. Joseph’s happiness mattered more to me than facing the awkwardness of another phone call. On the fourth consecutive day of awkward calls and yet no buns, I finally explained to the owner why I was being so persistent. I could hear the laughter in his voice when he said he understood and promised to call me as soon as the next batch came in.
That evening, Joseph’s dad walked through our main door holding steaming hot chocolate buns in a paper cover. As I watched Joseph relish them, I wondered if this offered the faintest glimpse into the Father’s heart.
If I could become this occupied with something as small as a chocolate bun, simply because of my love for Joseph, how much more involved would God be in the lives of His children?
I often imagine that God is busy with the great things of the universe. And before, when I was a much younger Christian and didn’t know any better, I used to think my problems were too insignificant for God. But now, I stand with the author (who I cannot find out on the Internet no matter how long I search) who said, “Don’t hesitate to take your small problems to God. To Him, they are all small problems”.
![Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.](https://akernelforchrist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/F3C84B02-F83F-4593-851D-D454ECC1814A-1024x1024.jpeg)
It was no coincidence then that I found myself reading the book of Jonah the week before last. If there is one thing that is strikingly clear in the book most famous for being a riveting Sunday School story, it’s this: God is constantly at work.
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah…” (1:1)
“The Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea… (1:4)
“The Lord had appointed a great fish..” (1:17)
“The Lord ordered the fish..” (2:10)
“The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time..” (3:1)
“When God saw what they had done..” (3:10)
“The Lord appointed a leafy plant..” (4:6)
“God also appointed a worm..” (4:7)
“God arranged for a scorching east wind..” (4:8)
Page after page, the Lord was doing something. God was closely involved in every aspect of Jonah’s journey. Nothing – absolutely nothing – happens to Jonah that was outside God’s sovereign hand. For years, I had primarily thought about Jonah as a reluctant prophet. Now, it reads more like a book about a relentless active God.
One question kept returning to me, clogging the wheels of my mind for a while – why did God put in all this effort? The same God that hurled the powerful wind could have hurled Jonah into the sea. Why was He so persistent that Jonah had to be the one to carry the news to Nineveh? He could have just as easily raised another prophet to do His bidding. So why did He choose the more painful route? The answer filled me with gratitude and stirred my heart to worship.
Because Jonah mattered to God just as much as Nineveh did.
God wasn’t merely interested in getting a prophet to the city. He was interested in shaping the prophet’s heart. God was unwilling to let an entire city perish in its sin – and He was equally unwilling to leave His prophet unrefined.
We are usually far more interested in what God is doing around us than what God is doing within us. After Nineveh repented, Jonah confesses: “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2)
Jonah expresses his displeasure in the long-suffering mercy of God – not knowing that those were the same attributes that prevented God from destroying Jonah.
We are often the same. We pray for changed circumstances – and God often responds by changing us.
God’s work was far from done even after the entire city had repented, proclaimed a fast and humbled themselves before God. Long after Jonah’s preaching ministry had apparently succeeded, the Lord was working on yet another task: God was still not done with Jonah. Chapter four is entirely about how God deals with Jonah’s heart.
Sometimes, we read stories like Jonah and imagine that God was especially active during the Old Testament times. But has He become less involved today?
Not at all.
“For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)
Notice the present tense. God is at work in each one of us. He is neither resting nor distant. He is actively giving us both the power and desire to please Him. His greatest work in our lives is not to make us comfortable, but to make us like Christ. This means that even the smallest frustrations that are seemingly insignificant may become His tools.
When you forget to turn the geyser on when you’re already in a crunch for time.
When the third consecutive packet of milk you open is spoiled.
When the hot iron leaves a hole in your favourite shawl.
When the fish falls apart just before you serve lunch.
When your child forgets their lunchbox at home.
When you finish washing your hair – only to still find it oily.
These instances seem insignificant and perhaps even humorous. Yet it is often in these tiny moments that our hearts are revealed. Jesus says, “ Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)
The inconvenience doesn’t create impatience. It simply exposes what was already there. And our gracious heavenly Father uses even these ordinary interruptions to gently shape us to the likeness of His Son.
The same is true of our bigger trials. Whether it is the unanswered prayers, the long illness, the waiting or the disappointment that has stretched on for years – God has not forgotten. He hasn’t become idle or distant – behind the scenes is a caring Father, furiously at work.
Timothy J. Keller, who was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, has this to say while going through pancreatic cancer at age 72: “I never want to go back to the prayer life I had before the cancer”.
Only someone who discovered God in suffering could say something like that. This is often God’s hidden work. Nothing brings sanctification quicker in a believer’s life than difficult times. Trouble teaches us to pray, waiting teaches us to trust, and weakness teaches us to depend.
Paul reminds us, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (Romans 8: 28,29)
We tend to read just the first part and claim it without any further study. But Paul tells us what the “good” is – it is that we might become like His Son. Sometimes, God wonderfully changes our circumstances but the greater miracle is how through every difficult circumstance, He patiently changes us.
John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, once contrasted the old covenant and the new by saying that the law tells us to run but neither gives us hands or feet. On the other hand, the gospel bids us fly and gives us wings. How true is that! Under the new covenant, God does not simply tell us what to do. He changes our hearts and gives us His Spirit. He supplies both the strength and desire to obey. Our calling is to abide in Christ and to yield ourselves daily to the Spirit’s work.
Perhaps we ought to start looking for God’s hand in more places than the miraculous. We will find him even more readily in delayed traffic, broken appliances, interrupted plans, difficult conversations and seasons of waiting. The very same God who appointed a fish, a plant, and a worm is still ordering the details of our lives today to sanctify us to the image of His Son. And when the time is right, He will accomplish exactly what He has purposed – not only around us, but within us.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 1: 24-25)
2 comments
Marvelous 👏🏼👏🏼♥️♥️💐💐💐
Hi Eva, you have so nicely brought out how God was continually at work in Jonah’s life as I usually only saw what Jonah was doing, in the story. Well written and God bless you my dear Eva❤️