Jonah 1:1-10; 2:1-10; 4:1-11
There are so many prayers throughout the Bible. I like reading them for the examples they provide of different ways to pray. They're full of emotions, requests, content, attitudes, structure. All good and helpful because I need those reminders that prayer is truly a conversation with God and He wants to hear what's on my heart-- my thanks, my hurts, my praise, my requests. And, that conversation is dynamic and ongoing, just like my life.
So how did you find Jonah's prayer? Was there anything he did or prayed that stood out to you? Did you see anything you might want to model when you pray? (I loved the way he was so real and just poured out his heart to God. I'm going to work on doing more of that when I pray.) Tami W.
Dear Tami,
My comments do not address your questions on Jonah's prayer, but I would like to share what happened to me last night while I knelt in prayer to my Lord and Saviour. Before my prayer, I wrote 2.5 pages of, "Why I love Jesus". During the prayer I prayed "let me do what it says in Deuteronomy". After I said that I could not understand why I said that... what in Deuteronomy? and this morning, as I went to my computer to read my BTTB devotions, the only item in my in-box from BTTB at 6:48 a.m. was the BTTB Bible Minute, " 100 percent". Dr. Kroll quoted Deuteronomy 4:29 "If you seek the Lord Thy God, you will find Him, if you look for Him with all your heart and all your soul". Dr. Kroll also quoted Deuternomy 6:4-5 which says, "...love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength". Isn't He awesome! Some people might say coincidence but with God there is no coincidence. What He says and do is The Truth. He hears us and He responds in His time. Everyday He does something new for us. Thanks for allowing me to share this and may God strengthen you to continue with Powered by 4 blog. It is really a good way to interact with each other.
Just shows after thousands of years man still hasnt changed. We pray to the Lord to answer prayers and when he does it isnt long before we grumbel about something else and want him to do More. We are like little children in that respect. When we are blessed by the Lord we need to be saying thank you and praising him and wanting to do anything possible for him. Be his servant and all that it implies. Too often we forget our place
Hi Tami,
Happy new year to P4 Tami and Staff may God continue to Bless you and guide you..
Jonah knew the true meaning of prayer and he did it from his heart... What I will take from Jonah is that it is a 2 way conversation with God and I, We have to wait and look for his reply just like Joan R did.....
So often like Jonah we pray and cry out to God asking Him to change our circumstances and when he does we forget how many tears we have cried and forget to give him thanks. My devotions this morning was talking about worship is giving God the best that He has given me and I have to be careful what I do with the best that God has given me. It went on to say that when I get a blessing from God I need to give it back as a love gift. If I hoard the gift for myself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot as the manna did when it was hoarded. Jonah should have given God praise for giving him the gift of life on dry land and then run to the place where he was asked to go. Reading about Jonah reminded me that first, I need to be obedient to God's and don't forget to praise Him for answered prayers.
Tami,
First, thank you for this service you provide to us helping us to interact regularly with God's word. I am fortunate that I get to listen to the BTTB radio broadcast on the way to work and then do the reading during lunch most days. Sometimes I think we are too hard on Jonah considering who he was asked to take the message to. My understanding is that the Assyrians regularly invaded Israel and it is even possible that some of Jonah's relatives may have been killed by them. When Dr. Kroll talked about the brutality of the Assyrians, it made me think about what God was asking Jonah to do could be like asking one of us to go to Afghanistan and take God's message to the insurgents. Not only difficult personally but possbily life threatening. On the prayer side, I liked the intensity of his prayer, something I would like more in my prayer life, I often find I am too resigned, especially when circumstances are difficult. But the other piece that really helped me today was when Dr. Kroll emphasized that when we are at the end of our rope, God still has great plans for us, we just need to listen and respond.
The thing that astounds me about Jonah is how well he understood the love of God. I try to imagine what it would be like to know of a city so evil that I would wish God would just wipe it off the face of the earth and then, if God spoke to me and said, "Call out against that city for their evil has come up before me" I think I wouldn't hesitate. There isn't even a hint that God intends to forgive them but Jonah knows God's character so well that, even without saying it, Jonah realizes that God wants to forgive. My prayer is, "May I understand God’s love and mercy the way Jonah did." As it says in Ephesians 3:18, "May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is."
I think the story of Jonah is sad in a way. First of all, God asked him to go to the people and tell them to repent. He did not want to do that so he jumped off the ship and was swallowed by the whale. Once he was spit out, Jonah finally did what was asked of him. Then he got mad because the people did repent. Why would he get mad at that? He should have been happy that the people repented and would not be destroyed. I guess we are all like that at one point or another.
What touched me most is how when we do finally do what God wants, we need to do it with the right spirit and not begrudgingly. We are to do everything to honor God with a joyful spirit, not because we HAVE to. Also, Tammy, I appreciate your comment on what you went through 15 yrs. ago. I too, about 20 yrs. ago went through a time when I was running away from anything that resembled God and also began to suffer with Anxiety attacks. They are crippling to a person. I knew how I was living was not right and I needed to get back to God, and did so in the beginning begrudgingly. It has been a long process, and I still have struggles, but am confident that I am heading in the right direction and do not have the anxiety issues anymore! I am thankful that God is so gracious and gives us 2nd chances, and 3rd an so on.
I feel that Jonah's prayer was how he felt and straight from his heart to God's ear. What Jonah missed was that him going to Nineveh wasn't about him; it was about doing God's work.
What stood out was the Jonah acknowledged that he knew God is a God of compassion and grace.
I think we should all pray from our heart. We should glorify and thank God as we pray. We shouldn't focus on us, but on God. I would like to pour myself out more to God in that manner, like Jonah did, when I pray, not just when I am frustrated or confused, but all the time. This is something to work on for each of us.
When I pray, I will work on praying from my heart at all times without distraction and in everything that I do each day.
I was a little confused at first as to why Jonah would be angry that God gave mercy to the people of Nineveh after they repented and turned from there evil ways. We should all be thankful for God's patience with us and that He is a God of second chances. I also can see it's sometimes in our human nature to want God to punish the ungodly. But it is not our decision to make, nor is it His will that we should suffer His wrath. Of course in Jonah's case, disobeying God wasn't the wisest thing to do either. But God showed his love and faithfulness to Jonah, listening to his prayer. In the end God had the last word and always will. Thank God for that.
Jonah seemed so "self" centered at the end, and the plant experience helped put things into the proper perspective. God's will is always most important, since only He has the benefit of omniscence! Realizing this daily and promoting this gives Him glory and honor. I pray to submit to His plan no matter how I personally may feel about it, and rejoice in His wisdom and love!
When teaching on Jonah, Feb. 15, 2010,on TV (I"M in Pa in the Scranton area), Doctor Krohl mentioned a scripture about prayer and reading the Bible and God not answering prayer if we do not read the scrpture. Could you tell me where that would be found? I only got a part of it and I've looked and looked but can't seem to find it. Thank You and Lord Bless! Your shows are a blessing.
Judy,
The passage you heard was Proverbs 28:9. Hope that helps!
Meredith, P4 Team Member