the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Our Daily Homily - Volume 3
Jonah 2:4—I am cast out from before thine eyes; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. (R.V.)
That is well, O truant soul. Look again from where thou art! Thou art in the heart of the seas; the flood of sorrow enwraps thee; storms of trouble are sweeping over thee—but look again toward his holy temple. All that sorrow has been sent to bring thee back from thy wanderings, and cause thee to look again. Thou couldest not look so long as thy back was towards the will of God, and thy face towards Tarshish; but now thou art turned again, and art on thy way back, thou mayest look again in the direction of the altar and its sacrifice, the High Priest and his mediation. Look again. Look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of Faith. Do not wait till thou hast come into a better vantage-point for vision, but look again from thy position in the lowest depths.
Look again! God invites thee, too. Though thou hast turned thy back on Him these many years, He waits to be gracious; his face is wreathed in tenderest, yearning love. One look the least, the most abashed, from the greatest distance, will be eagerly noticed and instantly reciprocated. "They looked unto Him and were lightened"—so wilt thou be. And He will bring up thy life from the pit. Does thy soul faint within thee?—then remember the Lord. Let there be but one yearning desire for Him, and it will come in unto Him as a prayer to his holy temple.
Look again! in spite of as remonstrances of thine heart. "I said." The heart is always saying: I am too vile; I have sinned too deeply; I have gone too far; I have so often fallen and returned, I am ashamed to come again: besides, are there not texts about never forgiveness, and impossible to renew to repentance? I said: Yet, look again!
