From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. Jonah 2:1
Today’s Scripture
Jonah 2:1-10
Listen to Today’s Devotion
Today’s Devotion
One moment Adrián Simancas was kayaking in the Strait of Magellan in Chile with his father. The next, the twenty-four-year-old was engulfed in the mouth of a humpback whale. “I thought I was dead,” Adrián told a news outlet. After a few seconds, the whale released Adrián into the frigid waters. His life vest caused him to float to the water’s surface, and his father helped him to safety.
The Old Testament prophet Jonah also had an encounter with a large sea creature. Jonah refused to follow God’s directive to preach a message of repentance to the Israelites’ enemies, the Ninevites, so he boarded a ship in the opposite direction of Nineveh. When the ship got caught in a storm, Jonah convinced the crew to throw him overboard (Jonah 1:11-12, 15). “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (v. 17). Jonah went from fleeing from God to crying out to Him: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (2:1).
God heard Jonah and rescued him (v. 10). Then Jonah preached to the Ninevites, and they repented (3:8-10).
If God could hear Jonah’s plea from inside a big fish, He can hear us and rescue us from wherever we are. Instead of running from God, let’s run to Him in prayer, knowing that He will answer us when we cry out to Him.
Reflect & Pray
Why do you sometimes run from God? How can you run to Him today?
Dear God, thank You for the rescue You alone provide.
Today’s Insights
The Bible records various places where people cried out to God. Samson prayed while chained in a pagan temple (Judges 16:28), Jesus prayed from a cross (Luke 23:46), and Paul frequently prayed while in prison (Philippians 1). One of the most unusual places of prayer was in the belly of “a huge fish” (Jonah 1:17; 2:1-9). Imagine how different his story might have been had Jonah prayed while still at home, rather than after God had pursued him to the depths of the sea. When Jonah cried out to God in prayer, He delivered him and gave him a second chance to fulfill his mission (3:1-2). Running from God only makes our problems worse. But when we walk in obedience to Him and cry out to Him in prayer, He’ll hear us and do what’s best within His perfect plans.
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