See Jonah Pray

The story of Jonah is a story of a man called by God to preach His word and yet he runs from the presence of God and refuses to preach the message given to him. I'm sure that anyone reading this will know the story of Jonah and the whale. Jonah runs from God and finds himself as the first passenger on a submarine. It is during this dark time in the belly of the whale that Jonah prays to God and admits his rebellion. We also see is this prayer a reference to his crisis prayer as he was on the verge of drowning. At the bottom of the sea with the weeds wrapped around his head he finally calls out to God.

I think this is the most sad part of the story. Jonah could not have gotten any lower before he prays to the God he knows! What causes a person to run from a loving God? What is it in us that we are willing to sink so low before we will admit our failure? The obvious answer is sin, but if we believe in Jesus and profess to follow Him, why do we have to fall so far before we turn back to Him?

The scriptures are clear that if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive our sins. In spite of our faithlessness, God is always faithful. What He says He will do, we can be sure that He "will" do it. How far is too far in our waiting to call on Him? The scriptures also talk about the judgment of God. It seems that we constantly want to test the patience of God. In our day of adrenalin junkies, it would be wise to not go to the edge of God's patience. When we get to the very bottom of our lives and then look up to the Lord He is always there to forgive, but the climb back up can be a long one. Even though God saved Jonah and used him to preach and bring revival to Nineveh I believe he still held the scars of the partially digested skin. I have seen people brought back from the edge of destruction by the grace of God and yet still carry the scars that now proclaim God's mercy. God will and can take our destroyed lives and make something beautiful and useful out of them. Our past even though it never goes away, God is able to use it and change our perspective on our own lives and His ability to restore and use us.

Today, I would rather not hit bottom before I decide to look up. Today I want to start off by praying to the Heavenly Father that I know loves me. Today I want to end my day by praying to the Heavenly Father who helped me through the day. Today I want to plan on starting my climb tomorrow from a better position than I started from today.
"Prayer" It can make all the difference in everything in your life today. Why wait until you hit bottom. I don't know about you but I would rather ride in a sail boat and be able to have a better view of the sunset than ride in a submarine and stare at the walls.
I think I'll stop writing now and go talk to the Father....

Just My Thoughts,
RiceBurnerMonk