Is God a Gentleman?

 One popular TV preacher says this: “My friend, God is a gentleman, and He will never force you to move into a place you don’t want to be. Since He cares for you so much, He desires that you walk in complete liberty, and He respects your boundaries, even if that means that you don’t experience His best.” [1]  

I’m confident the prophet Jonah would vehemently disagree. “Never force me to move into a place I didn’t want to be? Respect my boundaries? What about the storm? And the fish? God wasn’t a gentleman when He sent me to Nineveh!”  

The message of the Bible consistently presents God as a God who pursues. Sometimes even to our own hurt. When we run away He chases us down. And praise God that He does, because if He didn’t we’d all go to hell.

 [1] Bobby Schuller, https://hourofpower.org/god-is-a-gentleman/.