Episode 606

TODAY’S READING

1 From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God.

2 He said: “In my distress, I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

3 You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.

4 I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’

Jonah 2:1-4

What I got from this verse and this story is we’re looking at Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale, so he’s praying to God in the depths of his distress. He is calling out to the Lord, and the Lord hears him, but really, what I loved about this is that he says I have driven away from your site, yet I shall again look. Now, I don’t know about you. But many times over my life, I have been in what seemed to be hell on earth. I have been through hard seasons just like you have. I know you have because it is part of life that we walk through these valleys that pull us to deep, dark, and sad places. 

The reality is that we have low seasons, and we have good seasons but even in the lowest of lows. Even when we choose to look away from God, even when we decide to run away from the things of God, we can look again; we can look back to what the word says; we can look back to the promises that God gives us we can look back at this book right here to give us the strength and the encouragement for the day ahead of you. And then we can take it day by day, so I don’t know where you are today. I don’t know where you’re going to be years from now. But I want you to always remember that no matter what happens, no matter how low you get, no matter how far removed from the Lord, you put yourself. God is always there, and you can look again; you can look to his word, and he gives you everything you need to live a life according to His will.

Prayer:

Father God, we thank You, Lord, we thank you that you continue to chase us, God. We thank you that even in the lowest of lows, even when we are in the deepest valleys of the world, we can look for you; we can look for your face. We can look for your word, we can look for your wisdom, we can look for your strength, and you give it to us because you’re right there, Lord, you’re not far, you’re not far from us. The Bible says that you are closer than our very breath, so God, I pray for everybody under the sound of my voice. May we always remember how close you are. No matter what life brings us. We know that you are at the center of it. We love you. We pray this all in your son’s mighty name. Amen.