Out of the Depths.

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.” – Jonah 2:1-3 ESV

Jonah 2:1-9

If nothing else, this prayer of Jonah proves that you can pray from just about anywhere at any time. You don't have to have a “prayer closet” or a special place in which you pray. Prayer is available to us 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year. We can call out to God whenever and wherever we want and the best part is, He hears us. Jonah prayed from the belly of a fish. Not exactly a worshipful environment, but it was those less-than-perfect conditions that led Jonah to pray. His circumstances provided an ideal opportunity to talk to God. Finding himself in the digestive track of a large sea creature didn't dampen Jonah's prayer life, it enhanced it. And if you doubt that Jonah's story holds any credibility, you have Jesus to contend with, because He seems to have considered Jonah's three days in the fish's stomach as true. He used it when referring to His upcoming death. “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 ESV).

It was in the midst of his distress that Jonah called out to God. Prior to that point in time, Jonah had been busy running from God. He had decided to disobey God's will and follow his own. And he was going to learn that you can't outrun God. You can't hide from God. Not only that, you can't find yourself in a predicament that puts you out of touch with God. David seemed to have learned that same lesson. “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me” (Psalm 139:7-10 ESV). God is always nearby. He sees. He hears. He answers. It's interesting to note that Jonah says, “I called out.” This prayer was prayed while he was still in the belly of the fish. It was while he was right in the middle of his worst-case scenario. And yet, Jonah says, “he answered me” and “you heard my voice”. This isn't a post-salvation prayer, but a smack-dab-right-in-the-middle-of-it prayer. But Jonah knew that God heard him and was going to answer him. He was confident that God was there and that He cared.

What a wonderful reminder for those of us who might find ourselves swallowed up by our circumstances, with the floods surrounding us, the waves and billows passing over us. We can call out to God and not only will He hear us, He will answer us. Jonah had to wait three days for his deliverance, but it came. He probably showed the wear and tear of his ordeal. He would never forget the experience. And he would never fail to remember God graciously rescuing him from the consequences of his own stubborn rebellion. Trials and troubles tend to make prayer warriors out of all of us. When we find ourselves in serious trouble, we suddenly get serious about prayer. It's amazing how the person who claims, “I don't know how to pray” can discover the secret to prayer when the need arises. And that seems to be the key – need. Jonah needed God. He was at a loss to do anything about his condition. He was helpless and hopeless and in desperate need of rescue, so he turned to God. Prayer is always powered by dependency, not pride. Prideful people don't need God. The powerless are those that pray most powerfully. Desperation has a way of eliminating all pretense and pride. When we come to a place where we truly need God we seem to have no problem talking to Him. And that should be a lesson for us. Need is a primary factor for praying effectively. An awareness of our dependency on God will greatly improve our communication with God.

This reminds of the great old hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour. One of the less-known verses says, “I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain; Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.” Need is a missing ingredient in many of our prayer lives. And there is a huge difference between needs and wants. We tend to bring God all our wants and desires, but fail to recognize our need. We need HIM, not what He can give us. We need His deliverance, His presence, His power, His peace, His guidance, His joy, His forgiveness, His grace, His mercy, His love. We need Him every hour of every day. The chorus of that old hymn should be the daily prayer of every believer. “I need Thee, O I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee; O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.”

An Eternal Perspective.

2 Corinthians 4:8-18

So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we now see will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. – 2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT

Life on this planet can be tough. And nobody knew that better than Paul. He was an apostle of Jesus Christ, doing the work of God, and spreading the Good News around the world, and yet he suffered relentlessly and regularly for his efforts. He knew what it meant to face opposition, endure persecution, suffer humiliation, and experience the frustration of apparent failure. He described his life in fairly matter-of-fact terms: "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NLT). Paul's life was anything but easy, and yet he could calmly declare that his sufferings, while difficult, were not fatal. God had not abandoned him. That's a huge factor in understanding Paul's perspective on life. When difficulty raised its ugly head, Paul never jumped to the conclusion that he had been abandoned by God. He never allowed his mind to believe that his God had walked out on him. For Paul, the presence of trouble was never to be seen as the absence of God. Paul knew that God was there and that He was going to use the trials and troubles in Paul's life to perfect him and to reveal the power of God through him.

Paul knew that his suffering was nothing compared to that which Jesus endured. Jesus' entire life was a journey toward death. His suffering throughout His three and a half years of ministry was part of the process of His sacrifice that led ultimately to His death. Jesus came to suffer and die. And Paul knew that his suffering was, in a way, allowing him to "share in the death of Jesus." Paul knew that he could die at any time for what he was doing. In fact, he stated, "we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus" (2 Corinthians 4:11 NLT). But he also knew that even if death was inevitable, so was eternal life. Jesus' death resulted in eternal life for all those who believed in Him. So Paul knew that his suffering was sharing in Jesus' suffering and, if he was to die, he would share in Jesus' life, eternal life. Paul knew that "God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you" (2 Corinthians 4:14 NLT). So any suffering he may have had to endure was simply part of God's overall plan for Paul's life and the Kingdom's cause.

Paul had developed the attitude that allowed him to view his present circumstances as temporary and small when compared to what God had in store for him. He had learned to see trials and troubles as opportunities to watch God work, rather than setbacks or evidence of God's absence. He knew that anything he suffered on this earth was nothing when compared to what was to come. So he chose to focus his attention on future glory rather than present suffering. He chose to trust God and view his circumstances as simply part of God's overall plan for his life. As long as the gospel was being spread and people were coming to faith in Christ, Paul was willing to suffer. He had an indomitable spirit. He refused to give up. He would not allow any amount of trouble in his life distract him from the call on his life. As long as he was doing the will of God, he would gladly accept suffering as coming from the hand of God. Jesus had done the same thing, and that more than enough for Paul.

Father, suffering is one of the hardest things we have to endure in this life. We hate it. We do everything in our power to avoid it. We somehow think its presence in our lives is evidence of Your absence. But Paul makes it clear that nothing could be further from the truth. You are with us at ALL times. You use suffering to perfect and purify us. You know that it is temporary and that if we would learn to focus on the glory of what's to come, the suffering in this life would become insignificant in comparison. But too often, our perspective is limited and our vision is short-sighted. We think this world is all there is and so we expect all our blessings in his life. Give us an eternal perspective. Help us to fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. Amen.

I've Fallen and I CAN Get Up.

Proverbs 24b

“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.” – Proverbs 24:16 NLT

Living a godly life is not easy. Nowhere in the Bible are we promised a life of ease and comfort when we follow Christ. Yes, He offers us rest, but He does not promise us a trouble-free life. Instead, He assures us that our life will be marked by troubles and trials. He tells us that the world will hate us and that Satan is determined to destroy us. Yet, most of us seem to have an expectation that the Christian life is the good life. There are even those who preach and teach that following Christ is your ticket to health, wealth and prosperity. But history tells us otherwise. Over the centuries since Christ ascended into heaven, there have been countless numbers of His followers martyred for their faith. Others have been persecuted and forced to live out their faith in the face of threats and extreme deprivation. The life of godliness is not a bed of roses. It is the life of an alien living in a strange land. We are outsiders here. This world is no longer our home. We are on enemy soil and we are engaged in an epic battle between two forces at complete odds with one another.

As a result, there will be days when we fail and possibly fall. We will experience ups and downs in this life. But as Christians, we enjoy a certain sticktoitiveness that allows us to respond to setbacks and disappointments with amazing elasticity. We bounce back. We get back up. We keep on keeping on. As Christians we have a future hope that we can rest in and look towards. Paul put it this way: "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits arebeing renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever" – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT). When you have an eternal perspective, the setbacks of this life take on a different perspective. As Paul says, they begin to appear as small and short-lived. So rather than let them get us down and keep us there, we respond to them with hope and endurance. Paul knew this from experience. He was a man who had gone through all manner of trials and difficulties in his life as a follower of Christ, yet he was able to say, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love" (Romans 5:3-5 NLT).

We can and will fall down. But we can and should get back up. "The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again" (Proverbs 24:16 NLT). The wisdom of God lets us know that the trials of this life are temporal and limited in their impact. They cannot take away our salvation. They cannot change our eternal status. And while uncomfortable and unenjoyable, as Christians we can embrace them because we know they produce endurance in us and are part of the loving plan of God for our lives. He uses them to perfect us and correct us. He uses them to reveal our own weaknesses and His power. For God, they are simply opportunities to use His strength to provide for His children. The truly wise see life through God's eyes. We learn to view the circumstances of life from His perspective.

Father, sometimes this life can be hard. But I know You are here with me every step of the way. And I also know that Your love for me does not waver or change. My circumstances are not an indicator of Your love and faithfulness. Help me to view my circumstances through the lens of Your love. You never leave me or forsake me. You never let me down. You are able to use any and every circumstance in my life to make me more like Your Son. Thank You. Amen.

Ken Miller

Grow Pastor & Minister to Men kenm@christchapelbc.org