From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God: “In my distress I called to the LORD and he answered me … You hurled me into the deep … But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God … Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (Jonah 2:1, 2, 3, 6, 8).

God uses all kinds of things to invite us into prayer, including the gut of a great fish.

This summer we’re exploring Making Room: what kinds of “tools” or “exercises” can help enlarge our souls, increasing both our desire and capacity for deepening fellowship with our God.  The last two weeks we’ve looked at different ways to engage with Scripture (and how’s that memorizing of Ephesians 6:10-17 coming?).  In these next weeks, we’ll look at prayer.

The prophet Jonah generally doesn’t make the list of “champions of faith” or “prayer warriors.”  He’s given an assignment by God, runs in the opposite direction, almost causes the destruction of an innocent boat crew and ends up swallowed by a great fish.  Jonah doesn’t pray until he finds himself inside the fish.

Let’s see what we might learn about praying from Jonah’s prayer from the dark, moist belly of a really good-sized fish.

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed —The distresses of life are God’s way of asking, “May I please have your attention?”  Life’s difficulties are not punishments from God, but invitations, invitations to know the Lord more deeply, more personally.  Difficulties, even when they are the result of our own sin and disobedience, can become ways in which God enlarges our souls.  Prayer becomes the way in which we recognize what God is up to, give our permission for him to proceed, and learn how to cooperate in the process.

You hurled me into the deep — Jonah isn’t blaming God, he’s realigning himself with God’s sovereignty.  Nothing comes into our lives that hasn’t first passed through Father’s hands.  If I attempt to understand God through the lens of my circumstances, I will misunderstand both God and my circumstances.  If I learn to see my circumstances through the lens of God’s loving sovereignty, I am freed from reacting against my circumstances and instead learn to respond to the Lord, who is with me, even in the depths of ichthyoid entrails. 

But you brought my life up from the pit — The God who hurls is the God who saves!  There’s not a whole lot—i.e., nothing—that you can do for yourself from inside the gastro-intestinal tract of a large sea creature.  Well, there is one thing: you can learn to pray!

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs -- I don’t know about you, but one of the main reasons I don’t pray at times is that I’m looking for help from an idol, instead of from the Lord.  My idols have names like Comfort and Convenience, Look Good, Independence, Be in Control, Poor Me.  Perhaps you are familiar with some of them – or know a few I haven’t mentioned yet?

The thing about idols: they are all grace-less.  With them, it’s all buying-and-selling, earning/deserving, credits and debits, spiritual balance sheets and bookkeepers, pay-pay-pay.

With the Lord?  “In my distress I called to the LORD and he answered me … he listened to my cry … Salvation comes from the LORD!” Jonah isn’t rewarded, he hasn’t paid his dues or his debts, he is delivered by the unpurchased, undeserved, unearned grace of God!

Is there something in your life that you would like to pray about, or sense that you should, but don’t?  Take a moment and write it down.  List the reasons you don’t pray about it, everything from “It never occurs to me” or “this is too small (or big) a thing” or “God won’t listen to someone like me” or simply “I have no idea how to.”  And then pray the world’s best, most powerful and most important prayer: “Lord, please help me.”  Try it for a week – and pay attention, see what happens!