When We Finally Pray

The prophet has been on the run (physically and spiritually) the entire book of Jonah. After what is at least days and perhaps weeks, Jonah gets some enforced solid… He gets swallowed up by a fish and finally finds some time to pray!

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. - Jonah 2:1

Many of us have had this experience. We move through out lives feeling largely unaware of our need for God and then, BOOM!, we’re hit with something so out of our control that we can pretend anymore. Our self-sufficiency is shattered and we come face to face with the mess of our lives.

For God’s part, it doesn’t seem like there’s that much annoyance, much less anger. As we’ll see in the coming passages, God’s pretty patient with Jonah. And from what we can tell, God’s just happy that Jonah’s finally trying to connect.

Do you guilt yourself or others for not spending enough time alone with God? Perhaps God’s not angry. Perhaps God’s just waiting. And instead of feeling guilty for praying when things get hard, we should, like Jonah, really lean into it. Jonah really goes for it here, praying deep and long and pouring out his heart. These lines of prayer are the sweetest, most authentic, a healthiest we see of Jonah in the entire book.

What do you think of the idea that God’s not angry with your inconsistency, but simply awaiting more connection with you? Might there be a couple of places in your life, even right now, where God might appreciate you talking things through together?