God Hears Us

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Scripture: Jonah 2:1-2 (ESV)

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,

        “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,

and he answered me;

       out of the belly of Sheol, I cried,

and you heard my voice.

 

Devotion:

            In this scripture, we find the prophet Jonah inside a great fish. Jonah had disobeyed God and wound up being tossed off a ship that was carrying him into the sea. God, however, was not content to let Jonah die for his foolishness and dramatically rescued him. Jonah’s rescue proved to him that God indeed hears prayer and sometimes chooses to act in ways that seem impossible to our modern understanding of the world. We all disobey what we know to be God’s will for us from time to time, sometimes purposefully, as Jonah did.

            Jonah’s tale is meant to reassure us that God hears our prayers. If you are anything like me, prayers for God’s assistance are a last resort. Once we have tried everything we can do in our own power and failed, we will call out to God for help. It is good to know that God loves us enough to hear our prayers, even when they are a last resort. God had a task for Jonah to accomplish, so God has tasks for us to perform. Our prayers probably will not be answered dramatically like Jonah’s, but God hears us whenever we call out to Him.

            God saw Jonah’s plight and listened to his cry for help. We can be assured that God will hear us regardless of our circumstances. God may choose not to erase the consequences of our sinful choices, but He loves us and cares deeply for our well-being. This is the point of Jonah’s story: that God loves us deeply, knows what is best for us, and will act accordingly. Our “fish” stories may differ greatly from Jonah’s, but they are honest and vital. Let us remember Jonah’s tale and be willing to humble ourselves and ask God for assistance in good times or bad.

            Let us take a moment now to pray that God will hear us and be attentive to our prayer:

Prayer:

            Dear God, we may never find ourselves sinking in a literal ocean like Jonah, but we all will have serious things happen to us. Help us, Lord, to cry out to you whenever the stormy seas of life threaten to overwhelm us. Send us a “fish” to rescue us. Assure us that you are not finished with us yet and have plans for us beyond our current distress. Lord, be merciful to us. Remember that we are weak and frail human beings. Yet we are created in your image and precious to you. Hear our prayer and help us to be faithful. Amen.

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