DAILY DEVOTION: "Jonah's Prayer"

Day 19: Jonah’s Prayer

Scripture: (2nd Chapter of Jonah)

Author: Robert Hopkins

The story of Jonah has perhaps a hazardous sense of familiarity. But if we relax our pace, peer into the text more keenly, meditate and intensely consider, what can we discover that expands our view of God and, surely, deepens our admiration and love of Him? Narrowing in on Jonah’s Prayer (Chapter 2), I’ll highlight three heartening insights to embolden our spirits within the context of the redeeming work of affliction.

1. Our afflictions are not meaningless accidents. Strikingly, this prayer takes place not after deliverance from but within and throughout a dreadful affliction. More compelling, we read in the last verse of Chapter 1 that this event was not unintended or incidental but specially calculated and appointed by the Lord. Jonah himself makes this assertion of divine orchestration a few verses later in his prayer when he declares “For you cast me into the deep…”.
2. Our afflictions are intended to sanctify. In verses 3 through 9, we can detect a thrice repeated sequence in which Jonah ponders his dire situation and responds with a Godward glance. This sequence echoes the reality of progressive sanctification. In verse 5, Jonah says “yet shall I look again upon your holy temple”, then in verse 6 he states “yet you brought up my life from the pit;
3. Our afflictions are designed to help us love and produce hope. In verse 10, “... the Lord spoke…”, rescued Jonah and, with a humbled heart he went to Nineveh. Only after being assailed by sorrows was Jonah effectively molded and readied to play his role in redemptive history and carry out the Lord’s chosen work.