“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 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’” (Jonah 2:1-2).
Jonah found himself in a fix. While he got himself into this one, what we see here is applicable whether our situation of distress is our fault or not.
What we see is that Jonah cried out to the Lord for help, which is a pattern found in the Bible.
“In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.” (2 Samuel 22:7)
“In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears” (Psalm 18:6)
“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.”
(Psalm 118:5)
“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me” (Psalm 120:1).
Paul and Silas were praising the Lord around midnight while being unjustly jailed. (Acts 16)
If the pattern in Scripture is to cry out to the Lord in times of trouble, why is my first instinct to phone a friend? Why is venting to a friend, who usually can not help fix the problem, so tempting? Why isn’t first crying out to the Lord more natural for me?
Father, please help me grow in my faith so that I will first turn to you when I’m in a pickle. Amen.
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