He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” (Jonah 1:12 ESV)
Paranoid
A joke I laugh at: “Just because I am paranoid does not mean people are NOT out to get me!”
Do you ever feel like all the troubles of the world are aimed at you? Jonah understood the God he was running away from well enough to know that troubles WERE aimed at him. He caused the storm. He was a threat to the sailors.
Because Jonah knew that God disciplines, chastises, and guides His people.
He does not punish us, because He punished Jesus instead.
But He knows where He wants us to go, and sends storms to get us there.
So be sensitive to troubles. Do not despair in them. But wonder, consider, ponder, is God lovingly getting me to go to Damascus?
We are peculiar, we understand our bad times.