Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Prayer of Jonah

Jonah 2:1-10
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish’s belly.
And he said: “I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction,
And He answered me.
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
And You heard my voice.
For You cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the floods surrounded me;
All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.
Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight;
Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’
The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me;
Weeds were wrapped around my head.
I went down to the moorings of the mountains;
The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;
Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.
Those who regard worthless idols
Forsake their own Mercy.
But I will sacrifice to You
With the voice of thanksgiving;
I will pay what I have vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD.”
So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

“Father, thank You for these words that have been recorded as Jonah’s prayer from inside the fish. He talks about how he was in the depths of hell, and then You saved him. May we remember these words in times of trouble. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

So: I lied. I said we would be doing Moses tonight. Next week, though, I promise.

So in the exciting conclusion to Jonah Week, we're looking at Jonah chapter 2 (yeah, we kind of skipped around a bit).

This passage was what Jonah said when he was in trouble (belly of a fish!). He started out with why he was in trouble: he had been cast from God's sight. Then he said the biggie: that he was going to come back to God. He pointed out that even when God was punishing him, he was still alive. He said that he would honor God and not idols.

So God decided that he had learned his lesson, and had the whale spit out Jonah on dry land.

This is what it took for Jonah to have gotten out of the belly of the fish:
1. Acknowledge the problem.
2. Say he was going to come to God and trust him with it.
3. Realize that God still loves him enough to keep him around.
4. Honor God.

I don't know about you, but I liked Jonah Week. I have some other projects in mind that are upcoming, too (it's going to be a surprise!). If you ever have ideas, just email them in to me. (rocktalk951@gmail.com).

In His Service,
Joyce

No comments: