🌊 Stop Running from God | Jonah 1 Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to help you examine whether your life truly reflects the God you confess with your mouth.
2. 📅 June 20, 2026
Today’s passage reminds us:
Running from God does not only damage our own lives; it can also bring shame before others and dishonor the name of the Lord.
3. ✝️ Jonah 1:1-10
The LORD commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh, but Jonah fled to Tarshish. The LORD sent a great storm, terrifying the sailors while Jonah slept below deck. When the lot fell on Jonah, he confessed he was fleeing from the LORD, the Creator of the sea and dry land.
4. 📖 Key Verse
Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them (v. 10).
5. 📝 Reflection
I once read a news article about a senior pastor of a large church who had committed sexual crimes against members of his congregation over a long period of time. The article contained testimonies and circumstances that were difficult to dismiss. It was shocking enough that such crimes had continued for so long without being exposed, but it was even more devastating to read that the harm had reached some of the most vulnerable people.
That alone was enough to make anyone angry. But as I read the final paragraph of the article, my heart sank even further. The journalist wrote, “It is difficult to say that he truly believed in the God he claimed to serve, because he committed the kind of evil that only those who have no fear of God would dare to commit.”
The word of the Lord came to Jonah. God commanded him to go to Nineveh and proclaim repentance. But Jonah ran away. He paid the fare and boarded a ship heading in the exact opposite direction from the place God had sent him.
Then the ship Jonah was on encountered a violent storm. The storm was so fierce that even the sailors were terrified, and the ship seemed as though it would soon break apart. Yet Jonah had gone down into the lower part of the ship and fallen into a deep sleep. Eventually, he was brought out by the sailors.
There, before the frightened sailors, Jonah confessed that this disaster had come because he was running away from the Lord. When the men heard this, they were greatly afraid and asked Jonah,
“What have you done?”
Beloved brothers and sisters, if someone who does not know or believe in the Lord were to ask us, “Why have you acted this way?” what could we say? Could we answer, “I don’t know either”? Could we respond by saying, “And what about you? Have you done any better?”
No. We should not be looking for an excuse in such a moment. Instead, we must live in such a way that we never create that kind of situation in the first place. God must be glorified through us. Our words and actions should reveal who God is.
May you think, speak, and act today in a way that brings glory to God.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- Is there any area of my life where I am running from God’s voice?
- Do my words, choices, and hidden habits match the faith I confess?
- Have I become spiritually asleep while people around me are being hurt or confused?
- If someone who does not believe in God watched my life today, what would they learn about Him?
- How can I think, speak, and act today in a way that brings glory to God?
7. 🙏 Prayer
Our heavenly Father, thank You for speaking to me through Your Word.
Forgive me for the times I have confessed Your name with my mouth but failed to honor You with my life.
Wake me up from spiritual sleep, and do not let me run from Your voice.
Help my thoughts, words, and actions reflect Your holiness, love, and truth.
May my life never bring shame to Your name, but instead point others to Your glory.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 (Jonah 1:1-10, ESV).
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 8 Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” 9 And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” 10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
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