Most Israelites saw Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, as an undesirable town where their worst enemies lived. When God first called Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah resisted. He “fled from the presence of the Lord” toward Tarshish, in Spain, as far from Nineveh as he could get. Though Jonah denied his calling, God remained persistent. When He called Jonah, for the
second time, to travel to Nineveh, the prophet obeyed. He left his comfort zone to pursue God’s plans for him.

• More often than not, we find it extremely difficult to leave our comfort zones. We feel safe in what we know and it becomes hard to leave the boundaries we’ve created. When God first called Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah quickly rejected the idea. He was afraid to be sent “out of the office” to an unknown place. What “comfort zones” do you have in your life? What makes these boundaries so comfortable to you?
• God’s persistence with Jonah reflected his persistence with the people of Nineveh. God desperately wanted Jonah to reach Nineveh’s people, because he wanted to show love even to an enemy city. God’s persistence moved Jonah to abandon his sense of comfort and to go to Nineveh. In what ways is God calling you out of your comfort zones? Where do you see an opportunity to answer God’s calling today?