Verses: Jonah 2 : 1 - 10
My thoughts about the verses:
Have you ever prayed with all of your heart and soul? Go back to that one moment in time when you were in the worse place you had ever been. You know that you cannot get yourself out of the situation. There is no way that you can solve the problem yourself. If you do not have an ally you will definitely fail. Who did you call on to help you in that moment?
Jonah knew that he was in a place he could not get out of. He had betrayed God to the point that he had to turn and beg for forgiveness. He had to humble himself and ask God to deliver him from where he was at. Imagine being in the stomach of a large whale. Would you not have time to think about what you have done? Three days and nights must have felt like an entire eternity. Imagine the smell and the darkness.
Jonah had two options. He could have gotten angry with God. He could have accepted that he was going to die and just give up. Yet, he chose the second option. He began praying. He knew that he had gotten to where he was because he had hid from his calling. Like so many of us he began telling God all the things that he would do because he felt as if God have saved him from his own mistake.
Imagine being 23 years old. Then as you are a passenger in a car. You are taking kids back home after a night of bible study. Then all of sudden without warning your car is hit. You immediately start praying that the kids are okay. Your pastor sees the accident and the kids are perfectly fine. Yet, there you sat knowing that you are really injured. You go into a deep shock the kids are okay and so you let your own pain take over your body. The ambulance and police arrive rather quickly. You know that you are in trouble. You try your best to focus, but the pain is excruciating.
The medics get you out of the car then they do something that changes your life forever. They place a sheet over your face. You cannot speak because or the pain and shock and you immediately think that they think you are dead. You start praying to God like you have never prayed before. You want them to know that you are alive yet, you truly believe that they think you have died. You have a neck brace and back board on you because of how bad the wreck is. It isn't until you get in the ambulance that they remove the sheet from your face that you realize they do not think your dead.
I will tell you right now when this happened to me 19 years ago it changed my life forever. I started praying like I have never prayed before. I begged God at first that the kids would be okay. I had not gone into shock at that point and I prayed that they would be fine. Amazingly they were not hurt at all. Then the shock hit me and as the sheet went over my face I immediately started praying that God would let them know I was alive. I learned latter that it had started raining and they did not want to get me wet so that is why they had placed the sheet over my face. Once it was removed then the real agony started I could not talk and I was in so much pain. I laid there and the only thing that I could do was pray to myself. I couldn't speak but my mind was racing and I started begging God to save me.
Amazingly the only thing that was injured was my shoulder. I had to go through a surgery and a lot of rehab to get where I am now. I still have problems with the shoulder. Yet, I can tell you right now fifteen minutes with a sheet over my head effected me even today. I can connect with Jonah and understand begging for forgiveness. It wasn't to long after that my life changed. Yet, I believe it changed because of the prayers and promises that happened on the way to the hospital. The prayers that occurred during the surgery and lastly through the hard work of rehab. If it hadn't been for that wreck and my true desperate prayers for deliverance I do not think I would be here today.
I can tell you God is Love. God can deliver you from things that you could not get out of by yourself. God offers forgiveness for all you have done if only you ask for it. The thing you must do is put God in the middle of your life so that you can fulfill the deeds that God has for you to achieve.
Prayer:
Dear God we thank you for being with us during our hard times. We thank you for never running and hiding from us. We thank you for offering us love and forgiveness. We thank you for talking to us during our roughest times. Right now God we ask you to hear our prayers. God we know that if we lean on you will receive the blessing that we need. Help us accept the fate that falls upon us. In the name of our Risen Savior we pray. Amen
Questions:
Have you ever been scared before? Have you worried that you are in a place you cannot get out of? Have you ever prayed to God to save you from the situation that you are in? Did you believe that God would save you because of your faith? What do you need to do to grow your own faith? What do you need to do today to help others build their faith in God?
No comments:
Post a Comment