I Would Rather Be Gracious

Jonah 4:2 KJV
And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Here is an incredible thing; Jonah is angry at God for being too gracious and merciful. Jonah's preference would have been that God kills the Ninevites. And Jonah said his sole reason for fleeing to Tarshish was because he knew God would be gracious and merciful to them. He knew God to be
Gracious
Merciful
Slow to anger
Kind and
That He would repent of evil
And that is the last thing Jonah wanted God to do for these people.

As a preacher, I would rather be known for being gracious, kind and slow to anger rather than quit to wrath and judgment. And I have upset some folks over the years because I did not deal with people either as quickly or as aggressively as they would have liked me to.

If people are going to be angry with me; I would like it to be that I have some of the qualities of godliness.