Jonah’s Prayer
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Jonah 2:1-10, Psalm 88:4-5, Psalm 88:10–12, Hebrews 4:16
BY Missy Fuller
Text: Jonah 2:1-10, Psalm 88:4-5, Psalm 88:10–12, Hebrews 4:16
This is part of a 7-day series on Jonah in the Lent 2016 reading plan.
The last thing I wanted to do was pray.
Weeks after my college graduation I was diagnosed with depression. It came crashing in like Jonah’s storm, and without much warning I found myself in the pit. Maybe you’ve been there too—in that place you can’t quite explain, marked by sorrow and shame. I had been walking with Jesus for most of my life, but I had lost all hope. I was caught in a tangle of darkness and despair.
A friend encouraged me to press into Jesus. I wondered if I still knew what that meant.
I was so painfully lost in shame and confusion that even the thought of picking up my Bible caused a wave of emotion I couldn’t bear to face. A part of me knew my friend was right: I needed Jesus more than anything, especially in the pit. But the lies were screaming at me so loudly, drowning out my best intentions, even turning my sorrow into physical pain. I just couldn’t drag myself into His presence.
I wonder if Jonah shared in those same feelings of despair. He knew his sin had caused the storm, but I wonder if he thought the fish was how God was going to end his life.
Jonah was in the pit—quite literally in the depths. He was at the bottom of the ocean, inside a beast. Yet Jonah prayed from inside the fish, from the lowest of lows.
But did Jonah want to pray? Did he sit there pouting for two-and-a-half days and then finally admit his mistake, only to be immediately spit out on dry land? Or did he call on the Lord right away, then wait in silence for three days? Did Jonah pray because he felt his own brokenness, or just because that’s what a good Jewish man ought to do?
Whether out of contrition or habit, whether upon entering the pit or on his way out—Jonah called out to the Lord. And then something remarkable happened:
“I called to the LORD in my distress, and He answered me.”
-Jonah 2:2 (emphasis mine)
The God who heard Jonah’s cry hears yours and mine—no matter the pit we find ourselves in and no matter how we got there. The God of the incarnation, who took on flesh to rescue His people—that God always comes after us. He uses whatever means necessary to bring us out of the pit, even if that pit is the stomach of a huge fish.
Like the Lord pulled Jonah out of that fish and onto dry land, God pulled me up out of my own pit, one slow inch at a time. In time I was able to turn to Him in prayer. Painful though the process was, my only regret is that I didn’t call out to Him sooner.
Have you ever wondered if the Lord’s hand can reach as far as you’ve fallen?
Read Jonah’s story and have hope. God truly is faithful. He never gives up on us. Whether you’re new to the pit or you’ve been waiting on His deliverance for some time, approach His throne with the confidence that He hears you and will answer you (Hebrews 4:16). The God who left heaven to pursue you and rose from the pit to redeem you has not forgotten you. Thanks be to God.
“But You raised my life from the Pit, LORD my God!”
-Jonah 2:6
113 thoughts on "Jonah’s Prayer"
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always be so?
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I, too, have known the very pits of depression… I felt so down that I didn’t think was any further down to go… Thankfully I had family and friends praying for me, and I found hope again. God is forever faithful and will
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Thank you!
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Praise the Lord for his faithfulness and all-consuming love! Four months after having my second child, my husband checked himself into a mental facility for a week due to unimaginable stress from a job he ended up losing. An entire week with a preschooler, an infant, and a husband at the very very bottom of the pit….I have never been more reliant on Jesus! There were days I would wake up and all I could do was whisper the name “Jesus”. Fellow she’s, women who know the dank darkness of depression and loneliness, be encouraged that the Lord does hear you. Just as he heard Jonah, and commanded the fish to vomit him out, he hears you and you can trust Him to deliver you to dry land, protected, loved, redeemed.
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Prayed for you and your family this am
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Almost like water upon a thirsting soul. I completely relate to this devotion, and thank you for taking time to share this. It has been a little over a year and seems like forever since my college graduation and I feel like I am finally gaining confidence. Sometimes the feelings of guilt for not picking up my Bible often enough are overwhelming, and there is an inexplicable fear that perhaps my hands are too stained in sin to turn its delicate pages. But something keeps urging me forward and reminds me that I cannot handle the frustrating, depressing, happy, and scary things on my own.
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Thank you for this devotion and for the Hope that we have in God’s constant and relentless pursuit of us. I did have one question, in the devotion Missy compares her own experience to Jonah’s but she also includes this sentence, “I wonder if Jonah shared in those same feelings of despair. He knew his sin had caused the storm, but I wonder if he thought the fish was how God was going to end his life.” I can totally see the similarity in feelings of despair but from how I read this is she also implying that her own depression was a sin that caused a storm? It is quite clear that Jonah did not chose to follow God’s calling, but I don’t think that is the case for someone suffering from depression. Would love your input and claritity if I read this wrong or out of context. Thank you for this amazing Lent devotion. My husband and I have been really enjoying it. God bless.
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When I was in the pit, I felt like I couldn’t turn to God and I had to pull myself out because I had put myself there. I had made mistakes, decisions I knew God wouldn’t have wanted to me to make, and I felt too ashamed to turn to Him. I thought He wouldn’t help me. I was wrong. I wish I had held fast to him and seen myself as He did and healed through His love and mercy. Next time I find myself in the pit, I hope I will
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How did He take you out of the pit?
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I can think of three specific times that I was “in the pit”, and the amazing thing was, I didn’t always call out to God for His mercy. There were times I struggled in that pit feeling very much alone, but He eventually found a way to raise me out of it, anyway. He instilled lessons and compassion in my heart for other people going through similar struggles, and I feel I am better and closer to Him because of it. Only in my most recent “pit” (my miscarriage in 2014) do I specifically remember praying and asking God for His strength to lead me through it, and since that time I have felt more focused on Him than ever before. It’s so amazing to me how He uses our darkest times to draw us closer and make us better, even when we don’t realize He is doing it! Thank you, God, for being faithful to us even when we are not faithful to You!
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