Do you want others to have the grace you enjoy? Jonah

Jonah 4:1-4 (NASBStr)

 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

Can you imagine being so filled with anger and rage and judgment that you do not want God to extend His marvelous grace and mercy to others?   Can you imagine the pain that must be to carry?   Jonah makes a bold confession in this passage.  He confesses that he is so filled with hurt from the Ninevites that he can't imagine for them the same love and grace God has given him.   Remember, he has just recently had the blessing of God's grace.  He was in the deep of the sea and God sent a fish to rescue him.  He was just recently in the digestive system of a great fish and God caused the fish to release him ... unharmed.   Remember, he just saw the amazing repentance and confession of a city so large it took three days to walk through it.   Yet, he is ready to commit suicide simply because God gave grace and mercy to those he hated.   Pray to God that we never become the same in our lives.   God's grace is everlasting, deep, wonderful, liberating and free to those chosen by God and on whom He bestows that grace.  We can become so clouded by our revenge and frustration with man that we fail to extend to them the same grace that God has given us.   Allowing God to have mercy on whom He will have mercy (Romans 11) is having faith in the character of God that He will always do what is right.   Most believers, today, if they lived in Paul's day would not have wanted God to give grace to Paul.   At first, the disciples in Paul's day were skeptical and fearful of God's chosen servant.   We ought to be praying that everyone would be able to taste the saving grace and mercy of God.   We ought not to become "displeased" as Jonah did.   Who do you want God to withhold His bountiful mercy?