Try praying from the belly

"As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD and my prayer came to You, to Your Holy Temple"                                                                 Jonah 2    CSB 

If Jonah could pray from the belly of a huge fish, this proves that we too can pray from anywhere - on a walk, in the gym, at work, in the shower, everywhere. Jonah needed to do this to get back in fellowship with God. Sometimes it takes traumatic circumstances before we even consider this.

Things had gone seriously wrong for Jonah, through his own fault; he had been totally disobedient and rebellious to God's calling and had run off in the opposite direction. This is always unwise. If we have made a commitment to God then He will take us up on the offer, this is part of the deal - living for Him. Jonah disagreed with this, until he had spent a few days in this smelly fish; he then changed his mind and prayed:

"As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD and my prayer came to You"

Sometimes we have to reach rock bottom and sink below the surface; lose everything and become swallowed up with problems. In this situation, it is a sure way to remember how things were and call on God to rescue us.

God calls us to obedience. He will not change His mind or His Word. He expects us to adjust to it and as we obey or repent, He adjusts to our circumstances and helps us back on our feet. Jonah had to learn this and, so do we. He spent 3 days and 3 nights inside this fish until he came to his senses. 

In Matthew 12:38-41, we see that the Pharisees and scribes demanded a sign from Jesus that He was genuine. Jesus told them that the only sign He would give them was the sign of Jonah the prophet and there was a comparison of Jonah being in the fish 3 days and nights and He being in the grave for the same length of time. Tony Evans comments on this:

'When Jonah came out of the fish, he carried a message of repentance to Nineveh. God would show compassion on Nineveh through the symbolic death and resurrection of a prophet. But in Jesus Christ He showed mercy on you and me by the actual death and resurrection of the Son of God. Indeed then, "something greater than Jonah is here" Matthew 12:41'

                                      Tony Evans, (2019) The Tony Evans Study Bible. Holman

Indeed, something is greater here than Jonah and His name is Jesus Christ, your Lord and Saviour. Don't wrestle with Him or His directions, He always wins. Just make obedience to Him upper most in your life. I remember and old army joke, 'If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have joined up.' It's true, you accepted Jesus and told Him that you would obey and follow Him, so, there really is no more to say on this.

Copyright 2022 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle 

Check it out

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B084G9S4FD/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2