{"id":929,"date":"2019-07-03T01:23:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T01:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=929"},"modified":"2020-04-17T00:04:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T00:04:14","slug":"stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html","title":{"rendered":"Stop Waiting For God to Tell You Something Different"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"unsplash-logoBen
Ben White<\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the most hopeful verses in the entire Old Testament is Jonah 3:1, when God speaks again to Jonah after Jonah had been swallowed by a whale for his disobedience:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1\u00a0Then the word of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0came to Jonah\u00a0a second time:\u00a02\u00a0\u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>3\u00a0Jonah obeyed the word of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0and went to Nineveh. Jonah 3:1-3<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Doesn\u2019t that fill you with hope? <\/span>If Jonah could get a second chance, so can you. But there’s a catch:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/b>Stop waiting for God to tell you <\/b><\/span>something different<\/b><\/span>.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just as it\u2019s important to note that God gave Jonah a second chance, it\u2019s also important to note that when God did give Jonah a second chance, He didn\u2019t give Jonah a different directive. God gave Jonah a second chance to follow through and obey what God had originally told Jonah.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s important for us to remember today. Many times we\u2019re on the sidelines, not because God put us there but because we put ourselves there by refusing to do what He\u2019s asked us to do. Some of us have this mistaken notion that if we don\u2019t like something God has asked us to do, if we just wait long enough God will change His mind and ask us to do something more agreeable to us. God doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s God\u2019s world, we\u2019re just living in it. If you would say, \u201cGod hasn\u2019t spoken to me in years. I haven\u2019t heard His voice for decades,\u201d I would tell you: go back to the last thing God told you to do and do it. God is always waiting for us at the point of our obedience to what He\u2019s already told us to do.\u00a0<\/span>If God\u2019s clearly told you something to do but you don\u2019t like it and you\u2019re waiting until God tells you something different, just a heads up, you might be waiting around awhile. Stop waiting for God to tell you something different.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you’d like to connect and see more of the content I’m working on, be sure to like my church Facebook page<\/a>. You can also find me on social media: Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most hopeful verses in the entire Old Testament is Jonah 3:1, when God speaks again to Jonah after Jonah had been swallowed by a whale for his disobedience:   1\u00a0Then the word of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0came to Jonah\u00a0a second time:\u00a02\u00a0\u201cGo to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[410,27,74,33,75,409],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-next-steps","tag-disobedience","tag-god","tag-jonah","tag-obedience","tag-whale","tag-will-of-god"],"yoast_head":"\nStop Waiting For God to Tell You Something Different - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some of us have this mistaken notion that if we don't like what God has told us to do, He'll change His mind eventually. God doesn\u2019t work that way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop Waiting For God to Tell You Something Different - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some of us have this mistaken notion that if we don't like what God has told us to do, He'll change His mind eventually. God doesn\u2019t work that way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-03T01:23:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-17T00:04:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/403\/2019\/07\/ben-white-EMZxDosijJ4-unsplash-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stop Waiting For God to Tell You Something Different - Next Steps","description":"Some of us have this mistaken notion that if we don't like what God has told us to do, He'll change His mind eventually. God doesn\u2019t work that way.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stop Waiting For God to Tell You Something Different - Next Steps","og_description":"Some of us have this mistaken notion that if we don't like what God has told us to do, He'll change His mind eventually. God doesn\u2019t work that way.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html","og_site_name":"Next Steps","article_author":"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","article_published_time":"2019-07-03T01:23:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-17T00:04:14+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/403\/2019\/07\/ben-white-EMZxDosijJ4-unsplash-200x300.jpg"}],"author":"Josh Daffern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joshdaffern","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html","name":"Stop Waiting For God to Tell You Something Different - Next Steps","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/403\/2019\/07\/ben-white-EMZxDosijJ4-unsplash-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2019-07-03T01:23:06+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-17T00:04:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c"},"description":"Some of us have this mistaken notion that if we don't like what God has told us to do, He'll change His mind eventually. God doesn\u2019t work that way.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/403\/2019\/07\/ben-white-EMZxDosijJ4-unsplash-200x300.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/403\/2019\/07\/ben-white-EMZxDosijJ4-unsplash-200x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/07\/stop-waiting-god-tell-something-different.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stop Waiting For God to Tell You Something Different"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/","name":"Next Steps","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Josh Daffern","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c","name":"Josh Daffern","description":"Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. Enjoy the blog!","sameAs":["http:\/\/joshdaffern.com","facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","https:\/\/x.com\/joshdaffern"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/author\/jdaffern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":984,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}