JONAH 1:17-2:10 – And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 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. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!” And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

THEME OF THE DAY. WHERE WE LEARN TO PRAY. Ever been in the belly of a big fish? I don’t think so physically, but you will be figuratively and spiritually. That is if you really want to learn to pray. Like Jonah.

Learning to pray is one of the most important things in our walks with the Lord, and it is one of the most difficult. D.M. Lloyd-Jones, the great 20th century Welsh preacher said, “If you have never had difficulty in prayer, it is absolutely certain that you have never prayed.” His words ring true if we understand the true nature of praying. It is the highest spiritual exercise we will ever do this side of heaven. It is also the most opposed by our flesh and the devil. Why? Not only is prayer the highest spiritual exercise, it is also the most important discipline, privilege and responsibility Christians and churches practice. One more thing, prayer will also be the most attacked area in our lives by our flesh and the devil. When it comes to the flesh with its constant pull upon us toward comfort, ease, and rest, it will never roll over and say, “Prayer? Sure. No problem. Put the phone down, get off your computer, shut off the television, and let’s go into your prayer closet.” That will never happen, and the flesh will fight you every step of the way in your walk to your prayer closet.

As for the devil? He will never make attending prayer meetings with other Christians easy or convenient. He will seek to inject multiple distractions in our lives and shoot fiery darts of “good” reasons to persuade us to stay away from gathering with other Christians for prayer. Yet, despite this warfare, our God is committed to teaching us to pray and He might use a big fish in our lives to do so with the “big fish” being circumstances where we have no place to go, no help within ourselves, and are driving to wrestle with the Lord in prayer.

Space doesn’t allow us to “dive deep” into the lessons Jonah learned of himself, his God, and prayer, but we may list a few. These will be the same things we learn when God puts us in “the big fish of tough circumstances” to teach us to pray. So, before I give my list of lessons learned from the belly of a fish, take time soon and study today’s scripture and make your own list. Now mine . . . Jonah learned you cannot ignore God; God will not let you run from Him for long; prayer submits to God’s sovereignty, thanksgiving to God is to happen in “easy” times and hard, and that all deliverances or salvation in this life and the next are exclusively in the hands of God’s power and timing.

Learning to pray. God will teach us. And His classroom will always be in difficult, uncontrollable, and unchangeable circumstances, or, like Jonah, in the belly of a big fish.

PRAYER: “Father, when I pray, ‘Lord, teach me to pray’, help me to be teachable as You do.”

QUOTE: “We will really learn to pray when we have nowhere else to go but to the Lord in prayer.”