I can remember a time when I deliberately ran from God’s will. I was in my 20s, and God wanted me to submit to my parents. I refused. God sent a storm of mental anguish, and I asked my parents for help. Needing them made me get back in relationship with them.

When the Holy Spirit repeatedly nudges you to do something, and you keep putting it off or run away from the calling, the Heavenly Father may send you a storm to wake you up.

Just like he did with me.

And just like he did Jonah in the Bible.

This lesson was taught in Sunday’s sermon, entitled “Asleep at the Wheel,” on August 17, 2025 by a guest pastor.

In Jonah chapter one, Jonah was literally asleep in the bottom of a ship when God sent a storm to wake him up.

God had commanded him to go to the city of Ninevah to warn its people that God was going to bring judgment on them.

Jonah disobeyed when he went in the opposite direction and boarded a ship for Tarshish.

A storm came, and Jonah told the men on the ship to throw him overboard. When they did, the storm became calm.

The sermon had four questions to address the issue of sleeping at the wheel when we need to wake up and do what God wants us to do.

The first question was, “What part of my life am I sleeping through?” We often have a desire to run away when we don’t want to do a task given to us by God. Recognizing that we are running away is often half the battle to turn things around and start doing what we’re supposed to be doing.

The second question was, “How do I know if I’m asleep?” The answer to this question is you know you are asleep if you are emotionally disconnected like Jonah was. The storm was raging at the helm of the ship, and Jonah was down below, sleeping, oblivious to his peril.

The third question was, “Why should I even wake up?” When I choose to avoid doing something, people around me are going to pay for it just like the men on Jonah’s ship were affected by the storm as well. Avoidance is trying to control what we can’t control.

The fourth and final question was, “How do I wake up?” When we don’t listen, God sends a storm to wake us up. He comes after us.

We need to invite God into our world when we are asleep and ask Jesus to come teach us what we are scared to deal with. We have to decide that we can’t avoid the task anymore and move towards it.

I read a scripture that says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

Proverbs 3:27 also says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”

And, Proverbs 14:14 says, “The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.”

Reading these scriptures encourages me to focus and wake up to what God wants me to do.

What about you? Are you running from God’s will? Is it time for you to wake up?

—Ann Elizabeth Yeager