More Than A Prayer

I suspect most of us know what it’s like to pray when we’re in a panic.

That crisis moment when we receive a phone call with bad news, the family member requiring urgent help, the conflict and crisis at work. In these moments prayer comes quickly and easily. We reach for God because we know we can’t reach for anything else.

Jonah is in one of these moments, praying on the inside of a big fish, like clutching for a wall in the dark.

In Jonah 2:1-2, we read:

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”

What follows is a poem, a psalm, a prayer of help and hope.

Jonah uses the language of the Psalms to describe being cast into the deep. He even talks of the literal currents swirling and the seaweed wrapped around his head. It might not be the valley of the shadow of death, but it’s certain the belly of the shadow of darkness. He’s as low as a person can go.

And it is in this event that God hears.

Notice that Jonah’s prayer is not confession. Nor is it total repentance. He doesn’t say, “I’m sorry I ran”. He doesn’t repent of the disobedience to the call of God. He thanks God for saving his life, but there is still some deep work of the heart to come.

When we need rescuing it’s easy to call on God. It’s hard to come to Him when things are calm, settled, and stable; when there’s no crisis to drive us to our knees.

In v9 we read the heart of the chapter: “Salvation comes from the LORD.” 

This is a declaration of faith. Jonah is aware of where his rescue comes from. The question is whether he will allow that same salvation to transform his heart that first ran away from the Lord.

Prayer, in any moment, is a good place to start. But God wants more than crisis prayers. He wants ongoing conversation, connection, and worship. He loves for us to come to Him, to daily turn to Him in all things. Are we honest enough of where we are and how we are react to be open to God’s work in us?

In the end the Lord sets Jonah’s feet back on solid ground, which He also does for us when we call on Him.

For Reflection:

1.     Do you tend to pray more in crisis than in calm? What might it look like to foster a more consistent conversation with God?

2.     Is there something in your heart that you have not yet brought honestly before God?