SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/20/2015
8:59 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 Repentance
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jonah 2:1-2
Message
of the verses: We begin the second
main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline and the title of that is Repentance and
there are four sub-points that we will look at from this second main point.
Dr. Wiersbe states in his
introductory comments here that some think that Johan actually died and was
resurrected because of the prayer that he prays, but this view is certainly in
the minority as most believe he is speaking of the fact that he thought he was
going to die. He went from an experience
of rebellion and discipline to an experience of repentance and dedication as
the Lord graciously gives him a new beginning.
I have always cringed at the idea of being in the stomach of a large
fish, for I am sure that Jonah thought that he was actually going to die once
the fish swallowed him, but perhaps he knew that this was the Lord’s way of
saving his life for after all he awoke in the belly of this great big fish.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “As with the
Prodigal Son, whom Jonah in his rebellion greatly resembles (Luke 12:11-24), it
was the goodness of God that brought him to repentance (Rom. 2:4). Notice the stages in Jonah’s spiritual
experience as described in his prayer.”
We will look at these four experiences in four Spiritual Diaries
beginning with today.
He
prayed for God’s help (Jonah 2:1-2):
“1 Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, 2
and he said, "I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.”
I want to mention that in an endnote
Dr. Wiersbe states that in his prayer that Jonah quotes from at least fifteen
Psalms.
Some believe that Jonah prayed this
prayer at the end of the three days, but that is very hard to believe. They get this idea from verse one which reads
“Ehen Jonah prayed to the LORD his God,” but in the Hebrew just like at the
beginning of verse one of chapter one it reads “and Jonah prayed,” so I have to
believe that Jonah prayed right away. He
prayed as he was going down into the sea, but his prayer was born out of affliction
and not out of affection, after all he thought he was going to die and I
suppose most people would be praying in similar situations. Dr. Wiersbe writes “In chapter 1, he was
afraid of the will of God and rebelled against it, but now he wants God’s will
simply because it’s the only way out of his dangerous plight. Like too many people today, Jonah saw the
will of God as something to turn to in an emergency, not something to live by
every day of one’s life.” That
statements kind of hits home with me at different times of my life, but I am
working on it.
Jonah is going through what the
sailors were going through when they were praying because they though they too
were going to die. As believers we need
to take time to remember what it was like to live when we were lost, before we
were saved. I was almost 27 years old
when I was saved and I can truthfully say that I wish that God would have saved
me when I was a youngster like He did for my children and four of my
grandchildren, but it is good for me to remember what life was like before I
knew Christ so that I am not hard on unbelievers, something like what the
Pharisees were in Jesus’ day. This is what
Jonah was going to go through as he would be preaching to those who were lost
in their sin in Nineveh.
Did you ever wonder how God can hear
so many prayers of so many people at one time?
I have from time to time, but as I learn more and more about God I know that
this is no problem for Him. In the
second to last book of the “Left Behind” series I thought they did a good job
in showing this. I can’t remember all of
it, but it seems that some of the characters were running along with Jesus running
with them and He was talking to each of them in their own language so they had
this supernatural power to run very fast and listen to the Lord in their own
language. I think that the Lord hears
all of the prayers of His people without an issue. Remember with was He who spoke and the worlds
came into existence.
Dr. Wiersbe says that prayer is one
of the constant miracles of the Christian life.
Think about praying to God and then receiving an answer from the One
True God who loves us so much to answer our prayers. He ends his commentary on this section with a
quote from a man named William Law: “He
who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy
life.”
11/20/2015
9:30 PM
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