Amos 5:21-24

⁶ “I gave you empty stomachs in every city
    and lack of bread in every town,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁷ “I also withheld rain from you
    when the harvest was still three months away.
I sent rain on one town,
    but withheld it from another.
One field had rain;
    another had none and dried up.
⁸ People staggered from town to town for water
    but did not get enough to drink,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

⁹ “Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards,
    destroying them with blight and mildew.
Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹⁰ “I sent plagues among you
    as I did to Egypt.
I killed your young men with the sword,
    along with your captured horses.
I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹¹ “I overthrew some of you
    as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire,
    yet you have not returned to me,”
declares the Lord.

¹² “Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel,
    and because I will do this to you, Israel,
    prepare to meet your God.”

God has given many chances to change, to turn to him. What will await me if i stubbornly refuse to?

²¹ “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
    your assemblies are a stench to me.
²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.
²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream! 

God is not interested only in outward expressions which do not reflect what is in the heart. He seeks for justice and righteousness.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Someday... he will be calling me back. Am i encouraged by those words? But i am encouraged as i look forward to seeing the dead in Christ again!

Jonah 1:3

3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish . He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.

Am i running away from the Lord regarding anything? It would be as pointless as Jonah's effort, wouldn't it?

Hosea 2:8

⁸ She has not acknowledged that I was the one
    who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold –
    which they used for Baal.

I must acknowledge that everything i have is given graciously to me by God - and be thankful for it! And use it for his glory.

2 Chronicles 25:7-10

⁷ But a man of God came to him and said, ‘Your Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel – not with any of the people of Ephraim. ⁸ Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.’
⁹ Amaziah asked the man of God, ‘But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?’
The man of God replied, ‘The Lord can give you much more than that.’
¹⁰ So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. 

Do i fully trust in God? Could he not give me much more money than the amount that i feel i have been cheated of? Of course he can!

2 Chronicles 24:22

²² King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, ‘May the Lord see this and call you to account.’

Eventually, everyone will be held accountable for all the wrong they have done. I can take comfort in this and not try to exact revenge.

2 Kings 12:13-15

¹³ The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord; ¹⁴ it was paid to the workers, who used it to repair the temple. ¹⁵ They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty. 

They acted with complete honesty - no need to check on them! Can i be entrusted in the same way?