Resistance to God

In my last blog we looked at the first chapter of the Old Testament Book of Jonah.  It tells how Jonah received a directive from the Lord to go to Nineveh and declare the Lord’s condemnation of how the people were living. Jonah resisted this and went in the opposite direction, only to be thrown into the sea and ending up in the belly of a great fish for three days. As I looked at this a primary question that arose for me related to why Jonah was resisting and running away?

To begin with, on the face of it this was not due to what we normally recognize as fear. He was an established prophet who was mentioned in 2 Kings 14: 25 as rightly predicting the restoration of the land of Israel to its ancient boundaries through Jeroboam II. He was therefore not afraid to venture onto the public stage and speak out. In the passage we looked at in the previous blog he also demonstrated a lack of anxiety by sleeping in the midst of the raging storm. He furthermore took responsibility for causing the storm and offered to sacrifice his own life to save the lives of the others on board the ship. Jonah was therefore not weak kneed, but clearly had another hidden agenda which led him to resist what God was asking him to do.  

As I lived with this passage I also became aware that Jonah was clearly a person who was in relationship with God; and dialoguing with the Lord was a usual practice. He was not someone far from and antagonistic to God; but he had inner issues that he struggled with. These prevented him from responding to what God was calling him to do. That made him someone I could identify with. I also desired to be in relationship with God but I was living with issues that stood in the way of both fully being who I was created to be; as well as doing what I sensed the Lord was calling me to do. I spent time trying to identify what those areas of resistance were. What emerged was that I was holding onto three negative, self-destructive attitudes that were both stifling and crippling me. They worked together like three intertwined strands of a rope to bind and immobilize me. I was effectively imprisoned by them.

 I remembered from studying psychology that attitudes can be seen as being predispositions to behave. They affect the way we think, feel and act; and are very enduring and difficult to change. We take them on unconsciously and very often do not even know we have them. I was only aware of these attitudes because I had already wrestling with them for some time, with the help of a spiritual director. I was aware of their power over me and that it needed to be broken. Yet I also knew from my struggle with these attitudes that I was powerless to do so myself. It would require a greater power than my own will power. I knew this in the same way that a recovering alcoholic who follows the Twelve Step AA program knows that they cannot beat their addiction alone. They recognize that they need the help of a ‘higher power’. In my case I was aware that I had to trust in the power of the risen Christ.

There is a tendency to see ‘sin’ as willful disobedience; but often it is fuzzier and not so clear-cut. It is not just a case of choosing to act differently. I have recognized from my own experience that I have been trapped in compulsive and addictive behaviour patterns that were very difficult to let go of. I was effectively in their grip and needed to be set free from their power over me.

Substance abuse addictions seem fairly obvious to spot. There are however always destructive underlying attitudes which underpin them that are much harder to uncover. The root causes need to be exposed in a process that follows a pattern like peeling off the layers of an onion to get to its core. In the Twelve Step Program the addict needs the support of others to do this and the power of God to break free.

It took me a long time to even identify what my destructive attitudes were. I needed others to help me in this process; I could not do so alone. I have also needed the support of others to help me break free; together with relying on the power of Christ through prayer.

Some questions for reflection:

*In light of what has been said are there hidden agendas or attitudes which prevent you from hearing
  what God is saying to you in our own life situation?  

*Are there things which block you from positively responding to what you hear God calling you to?

*Are you in the grip of compulsive and addictive behaviours?

*How have you dealt with these resistances?    

 That small part of me that resists God becomes the whole of me if it makes me turn away.