“I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the world of the dead, and LORD, you heard me!”
(Jonah 2:2 NLT)
The Book of Jonah is about a reluctant prophet who learned to follow God’s orders and also learned a lesson about God’s grace. It is short requiring only about five minutes to read.
In Chapter 1, Jonah sails on a boat going to Tarshish, the opposite direction from the message that the LORD gave him to go to Nineveh to announce judgment against the sinful people there. He is subsequently thrown overboard in a storm and swallowed by a big fish.
God had called Jonah to do something he didn’t want to do, and Jonah tried to do things his own way. Have you ever done this? Often, the easy road is the wrong road, and the right road costs us something. In the end, though, the right road always leads to spiritual growth and blessing.
It took Jonah three days in the stomach of the big fish to realize that he needed to follow God’s plan for his life. He subsequently prays while inside the belly of the big fish (ref. Jonah 2:2), and is vomited onto dry land. God sometimes goes a long way to correct His wayward children and lead them back to Himself!
To obey God’s will is to find the fulfillment of our lives.
- David Watson