To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. "When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Jonah 2:6-9
When I look back over my life and the events thereof, it’s not hard to see the Lord’s hand in all that has transpired. His love, His mercy and His grace has played an intricate part throughout. When I think about where I could have been or where I should have been, all I can do is thank Him for pulling me up and out of the muck and miry of what was my life. Especially, in those times when I did not go and do as He had commanded. Yet, He still kept me in spite of myself. I praise Him for who He is – not for what He can do for me and realizing that in everything, I must give thanks.
Such is the story of Jonah and the reason as to why he landed himself inside the belly of the great fish. The Lord had given Jonah specific directions; he wanted him to give a word of repentance to the people and what He wanted him to do. However, Jonah decided that he'll just go in the opposite direction and not do as instructed because he didn't think the people deserved the Lord's mercy. If you read in chapter 1 and 2, you'll see that it didn't go so well for Jonah and finds himself swallowed up in order to give him time to think about what he'd done. The Lord's loving hand of protection was with Jonah, as it is with us, showing His covering even when we are sometimes disobedient. It also shows how He preserves us for purpose and for His will to be done.
What a loving and merciful God we serve, unlike idols, man or Jonah, He is full of compassion, mercy and grace. He is concerned about our wellbeing. He is patient and shows longsuffering towards us when we don't deserve it. It does not matter what we think because we don’t know the reasons as to why God does what He wants for others, but we have to remember that we too were in a state at one time when the Lord pulled us out of whatever mess we were in. We should be voicing our thanksgiving as opposed to our unwillingness to share the wonderful things that the Lord has done for us.
Like Jonah, there is a lesson in this story for us all. Jonah said "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee." I would paraphrase by saying, "when I was calm and I came to myself, I remembered the Lord is in control of all things, and I started to pray and the Lord heard me!" Jonah began to let God know just how thankful he was and vowed that he would continue in the way of thanksgiving.
Personally, I'm not interested in being cast out of my comfort zone and into the belly of circumstances because of my disobedience. I vow to keep a word of praise no matter what; whether I understand the what or why the Lord is asking me to do a thing and it doesn't matter whether I agree with it or not. I will be giving him thanks in all things, the good, the bad, and the indifferent. With all that the Lord does for us, we should have a continual voice of thanksgiving!
Cynde
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