Apologizing Christians

God had been telling Jonah to go to Nineveh to tell them to change their ways or they would be destroyed, but Jonah had been reluctant to do it until he was swallowed into the belly of the great fish.  After God saved him, he went to Nineveh to do God’s Will.

And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.  So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.  For Word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.  And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not?  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.  Jonah, Chapter 3, verses 4-10.

Some people believe our lives are controlled by fate and we can’t do anything to change our lives or our fate.  Well, this passage refutes that position.  The people of Nineveh lived the high life and didn’t focus on God.  They turned their lives around after Jonah warned them that they were going to be destroyed and God spared them.
So that means that if we have made some pretty stupid counterproductive choices in our lives, we can apologize to God and turn our actions around.  God will forgive us, Apologizing Christians too, just like He did for the people who lived in Nineveh.

Here are some related passages:
*Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.  Psalm, Chapter 103, verses 2-4.
*The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.  He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor regarded us according to our iniquities.  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.  Psalm, Chapter 103, verses 8-13.
*But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s children: To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His Commandments to do them.  Psalm, Chapter 103, verses 17-18.

 Since this is an example of the positive influence God has made on my walk with Christ, this may not reflect the whole meaning of the Bible verses.