📖 Day 15: When Mercy Feels Unfair

Scripture:
“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.” — Jonah 4:1

🌿 Reflection

Jonah finally obeyed.
Nineveh repented.
God showed mercy.
And Jonah… got angry.

It feels jarring until we’re honest with ourselves —
because we’ve all felt this way at times.

Jonah wasn’t furious about the message.
He was furious about the mercy.

He wanted justice.
He wanted consequences.
He wanted God to treat Nineveh as Jonah felt they deserved.

But God’s heart is not driven by Jonah’s wounds.
It is driven by compassion.

Jonah’s anger exposes something tender inside him:
a place of pain he hasn’t surrendered,
a wound that distorts how he sees others,
a fear that mercy might mean injustice.

But God invites Jonah — and us — into a deeper truth:
His mercy is bigger than our sense of fairness.
And sometimes the hardest work God does in us
is not through storms or whales or second chances —
but through confronting our resistance to His grace for others.

This moment is not God scolding Jonah.
It is God gently uncovering Jonah’s heart.

📝 Journal Prompt

Is there someone you struggle to forgive?
Someone you feel doesn’t deserve mercy?

Write honestly about an area where God may be inviting you
to release anger, loosen control, or soften your heart.