Be patient and wait on the Lord

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III


Jonah

Be patient and wait on the Lord. But this does not mean that you lax and slacken and remain in the mud until the Potter comes.
Repentance needs two things: Work from God and response from man, as the mariners responded to God's call and believed and made vows, and as the Ninevites responded and repented returning from their evil ways, and as Jonah responded at the end.
Another lesson we take from the Book of Jonah is that God, despite His infinite greatness, likes to reason with man.