Jonah’s Prayer
2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6 at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
O Lord my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
ESV
Jonah 2:1-10 What finally triggers you to pray out to God? Why do we delay in going to prayer? Jonah has been running from God in disobedience so our sin causes us to shut down communication with God. We don’t pray & we don’t read our Bibles when we are living in guilt & shame. It is crazy that we wait till desperation to call out to the one who can save. Jonah is inside a large fish complete with seaweed wrapped around his head & he realizes that Salvation is of the Lord. Much like the thief on the cross beside Jesus it is enough to believe & cry out. Jonah cries out & is vomited up on the shore. Jonah could have bypassed all of this if he had obeyed in the first place. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you!
