“Prayer Helps”
Whenever you find yourself in times of trial, afflicted and in torment, what you need to know is that you’re never more than a prayer away. We need to come to the realization that on our own we have no power over what happens in our lives.
The Apostle Paul said, “We were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us” (2 Corinthians 1:8b-11a).
Paul thought it was all over, which was Jonah’s expectation as well. Swallowed by a big fish and being digested by its juices Jonah wallowed in his despair for three days.
But then he prayed to the Lord, and prayer helps. God delivered the Apostle Paul through the prayer, and God delivered Jonah through his prayer from the belly of fish, from the bowels of his despair.
“You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:6b-7).
When we repent and turn from going our own way, God quickly gets us back in the game by giving us His grace and mercy.
Thinking he was expelled from God’s grace, Jonah prayed, “I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple” (Jonah 2:4 NKJV).
And God heard Jonah’s prayer and expelled him from the fish. “So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (Jonah 2:10).
Prayer helps, but when we pray let’s not magnify our problems; instead repent and magnify the Lord, and watch the Lord expel you from your problem.