Showing posts with label whale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label whale. Show all posts

June 21, 2021

Praying from inside a whale

  

On rare occasions (this very month in fact!), we hear of someone who survived being swallowed by a whale. According to statistics, the likelihood of this is one in a trillion, but for some people, those odds take the Bible story of Jonah out of the mists of myth into praise of the power our Almighty God has over odds.

 

Since our Creator God is not into performing magic tricks, each miracle fulfills some plan or purpose. With Jonah, for example, God planned to send the prophet into enemy territory on what might have been the first missionary trip ever.

 

And the people believed.

 

 

Jonah 2:2-9 – a prayer of Jonah
paraphrased from many translations
as found on Bible Gateway

 

I called to You, Lord, in my distress,

and You answered me!

From the belly of death, I cried for help,

and You heard me!

 

When You tossed me into the depths

of the sea, the waters overcame me.

Billows and breakers swept over me,

and I said, “I’ve been banished

from Your sight!” I wondered if I

would ever see Your holy sanctuary again.

 

Water engulfed me, and I sank into the sea.

Seaweed wrapped around my head.

I sank to the sea-roots of mountains.

Around me, the earth

closed like prison bars,

but You raised me

from this sinkhole,

O Lord, my God!

 

As my life faded away,

I remembered You.

My prayer floated up to You,

reaching Your holy presence.

Worshippers of worthless things

forsake Your faithful love, but I

will give You my voice

in a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

I’ll do as I promised, Lord,

for You alone hold my salvation.


From the Book of Bible Prayers – actual prayers of the Bible collected from a variety of translations researched on Bible Gateway then paraphrased into everyday English by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019.

 

 

Jonah 2:2-9 – a prayer of Jonah
from the King James Version of the Bible

 

And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction

the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell

cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

 

For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst

of the seas; and the floods compassed me about:

all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

 

Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look

again toward thy holy temple.

 

The waters compassed me about,

even to the soul: the depth

closed me round about,

the weeds were wrapped about my head.

 

 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains;

the earth with her bars was about me for ever:

yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption,

O Lord my God.

 

When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord:

and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

 

They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving;

I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.



From the Book of KJV Prayers - actual prayers from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) collected by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019 

 

….

In the Amen of Jesus

  2 Corinthians 1:20 – “In Christ, every promise of God finds its ‘Yes!’ And also through Him is our ‘Amen!’ for the glory of God through us...