Swallowed by Despair? Find Joy in the Lord!

          Have you had your Joy Juice today?  Even when we are in the pit of despair, the joy of the Lord is still available.

            There are more than 650 prayers in the Bible…prayers such as “The Lord’s Prayer” and “The Prayer of Jabez”.  Today let’s take a look at Jonah’s Prayer of Salvation in the second chapter of Jonah. For the sake of time, we will only look at a few of the verses:

 ¹ From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. ² He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.

⁷ “When my life was ebbing away,
    I remembered you, Lord,
and my prayer rose to you,
    to your holy temple.

⁸ “Those who cling to worthless idols
    turn away from God’s love for them.
⁹ But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
    will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
    I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

¹⁰ And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

            You know the story. Jonah was swallowed by the big fish as he was trying to flee from God. In the belly of the fish, he came to his senses and began to pray.  All of us at one time or another will feel as if we’ve been “swallowed” by a desperate situation.  Like Jonah, we should remember to pray…in our distress we should call out to the LORD and ask for deliverance.

            Though there will be times in our lives that threaten to swallow us up in a sea of despair, we can find hope & joy in the truth that God will hear our cry for help.