Lessons from the Prayer of Jonah

Lessons from the Prayer of Jonah

A lot of my blog post come from the scripture writing that I do every day.

I will write a verse and then God will gently lead me to dig a little deeper into a verse. It is normally a word that will pique my interest and I will want to dig into the meaning behind why that verse is there in the Bible. I will read other translations and go to commentaries and dictionaries to study the passage.

It is exciting to learn about why Bible translators chose a particular word based on the Greek and Hebrew originals. I have always said that I would probably enjoy taking seminary classes bot to get a degree but just to learn more about the Bible.

Well, today I was continuing in my thanksgiving scripture writing for the month of November. I ended up in the book of Jonah, which is not normally a book of the Bible that I am in too often.

I wrote Jonah 2:7-9

⁷ When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
⁸ Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
⁹ But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

The part that stuck out to me was in verse 8 where it talks about “vain idols.” Now I love to read the English Standard Version. That is kind of my go to translation. The New Living Translation uses the phrase “false gods.” The King James Version uses “lying vanities.”

I use the website Blue Letter Bible a lot because it has commentaries, dictionaries, and concordances to study the Bible.

I looked up the word vain and for the definition I saw words like emptiness, falsehood, nothingness, and worthlessness.

I was immedietly struck with the fact that much of my day is filled with things that are described by the word vain. My children and I spend our time on things that have no eternal value whatsoever. The time I spend on my phone or watching television is worthless. Yes, I can watch things on my phone that will help me in my walk with the Lord. Phones and the internet are wonderful tools that can be used for the glory of God.

The time that I personally spend on my phone is not glorifying to God. I know that I can using my time to do better things. Things that will glorify God. What I do every day on my phone is empty and worthless.

I know that I can be spending my time doing better things.

What I am spending the most time on is a reflection of where my heart truly is. It is something that I have thinking about for a long time. How much of my time is spent doing things that have no eternal value? That bring no glory to God.

I looked at the word “forsake” in this passage. When I looked at the definition, I saw phrases and words like to depart from, leave behind, abandon, and neglect.

Again, so convicting for me.

Some of these imply that we know what is right and we make a conscious decision to not do what we know is right. Sound familiar?

In Romans 7:15, Paul says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

I am so glad that God chose for this verse to be included in the Bible. I agree with Paul. Growing up in a Christian home we can get comfortable speaking all the right words and doing all the right things. It isn’t until we truly make the decision to follow and cling to God that our lives truly begin to change. It must to be something that everyone decides for themselves.

Keeping our relationship with God a growing one is a lot of hard work. Living a life for Christ is not a walk in the park. Just like our relationships with our friends and spouses and those we love falter and fade when we neglect them, so does our relationship with Christ.

If we do not put the time and effort into getting to know Jesus better then the relationship will not be the vibrant, victorious walk that true Christians desire. It is my true desire that my relationship with Christ be the most wonderful, fulfilling relationship that I have in my life.

This means that I need to every day make the decision to choose the things that I know are going to help that relationship. I need to get rid of all the things in my life that are making it hard for that relationship to grow.

For me, that is my phone and the time I spend on it watching shows and doing worthless things.

My desire for my relationship with Christ is simply MORE.

More of learning who he is.

More of the Holy Spirit working in my life.

More of loving what God loves.

Just MORE of Jesus.

Having more of Jesus causes something that flows through is.

THANKSGIVING.

Job in his prayer also talks about thanksgiving.

John Piper preached a sermon about Jonah’s prayer in 1982. I think I was 9 years old then. It is so relevant to my life today.

He said, “God answers prayers in order that thanksgiving will abound to his glory. People who have a spirit of thanksgiving are the best candidates for answered prayer.”

It is all for God’s glory.

Psalm 50:14-15

⁴ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
    and perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵ and call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

Everything that God does for us or allows us to go through is all so that we will pour out our thanksgiving back to him, so he gets all the glory.

It is all about God’s glory.

John Piper also said, “God answers us in distress in order to win our undivided loyalty and fill us with thanksgiving for his mercy.”

There is a shift in our thinking when we can finally realize that even the hard things that God allows us to go through is all for his glory.

We are to be as thankful for the difficult things in life as we are for the all the good things.

I am thankful for the new house that God is blessing us with, but I realize that without the loss of our sweet Asa, my family would not be where we are right now.

When we realize that the bad things we experience are designed by God to grow us and cause us to be thankful to him and bring him glory, then we can truly grow and be vessels that God can use to draw others to his side.

My story is unique and there is no one who has walked the exact road that I have up to this point in my life. My story has enfolded the way that it has so that I can point others to Christ. My story may not look the way that I dreamed of, but it was what God planned for me since the beginning of time.

I am so thankful that he chose me to be the wife of Carl and the mother to 8 children living on this earth. I am also so honored and thankful that he chose me to be the mother of our sweet Asa for the short weeks I carried him. I am thankful for the good times and the many blessings he has given me. But I am just as thankful for the hard times that have put me on my knees in prayer and caused me to cling to him.

I am thankful for it all.

As I draw closer to him and seek to know him MORE. I am amazed at his goodness and his mercy and his grace and I am overwhelmed with Him.

He is enough. Always and forever.

He does not change.

He is constant and his love for me is a promise I have.

As I reflect this month on all his many blessings, I do not want to lose that heart of thanksgiving come December 1.

My prayer is that my heart of thanksgiving will continue every day of my life.

I desire that my when I draw my final breath that my last words will be of thanksgiving to my Lord Jesus.

Daniel took this picture of me. As I was writing this post in a coffee shop he walked up to me and handed me a heart shaped candy and gave me a big hug and kiss on my cheek. I am so thankful for these little moments.