{"id":20404,"date":"2014-06-27T00:15:25","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T04:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=20404"},"modified":"2014-06-26T23:10:28","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T03:10:28","slug":"jonah-big-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/27\/jonah-big-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonah and the Big Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jonah2.2prayer\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Jonah and the Big Fish<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m sure if you have been to Sunday School ever in your life, you have heard the story of Jonah and the big fish. \u00a0Here is a little recap: God orders Jonah to go to Ninevah to warn them that God is going to smite them for their sins.<\/p>\n

The Word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai.
\n“Go to the great city of Ninevah and preach against it,
\nbecause its wickedness has come up before Me.”
\nJonah 1:1-2<\/p>\n

Like many people these days, Jonah isn\u2019t thrilled to go to Iraq and his new assignment. \u00a0So he goes missing, nowhere to be found. \u00a0Next thing we know, he is jumping ship at Joppa and is headed for Tarshish and God is really not happy with him. \u00a0So He sends a storm of huge proportion and the sailors start to pray for a rescue, \u00a0“each cried out to their own god…”.<\/p>\n

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose
\nthat the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid
\nand each cried out to their own god…
\nJonah 1:3-5<\/p>\n

As the storm gets rough, Jonah goes below the deck and takes a nap. \u00a0Why is he sleeping at this stressful hour? \u00a0He is avoiding difficulty.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t work. \u00a0The captain decides to wake him up and the rest of the sailors are trying to figure out why all this is happening to them. \u00a0Jonah begins to explain that he worships the Lord God Almighty and that at this very moment, he is fleeing the Lord\u2019s commands. \u00a0The sailors are so afraid to hear about God. \u00a0They all worship a god of their own so why are they so frightened of the Lord? They are realizing that Jonah\u2019s God is mightier than their own.<\/p>\n

Finally Jonah tells them to throw him overboard to please the Lord. \u00a0The sailors hesitate at first, not really wanting to toss him over. \u00a0They try to row the other way but it\u2019s all for nothing. \u00a0So, as a last resort, they throw him overboard (verse 15) and guess what? \u00a0The storm stops and the sailors make a sacrifice to God (verse 16).<\/p>\n

The Lord God Almighty provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah (verse 17). \u201cProvided\u201d is amazing. \u00a0The fish isn\u2019t really a punishment, the fish is salvation. \u00a0Jonah spends a long, relaxing weekend in the belly of a fish. \u00a0He stayed on his knees praying the whole time and thanking God for rescuing him from death (Jonah 2:2-9). \u00a0God commands the fish to spit him out. \u00a0He is free and ready to do God\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Do you see how much prayer<\/em><\/strong> plays such a big part of this story? \u00a0God hears and answers and saves him from certain death. \u00a0But the miracle doesn\u2019t stop there. Jonah goes<\/strong> to Ninevah. \u00a0The Ninevites pray and it works and God pardons the city. \u00a0Prayer again is working (Jonah 2:1,10)!!<\/p>\n

Prayer leads to God\u2019s provision—always<\/strong>. \u00a0It may not be exactly what you asked for but God always answers. \u00a0And, depending on how close you are listening, you just may hear Him. \u00a0We see God\u2019s character; He may be demanding but He is always merciful. And you may see something as punishment but it \u00a0just may be saving your life. \u00a0Whatever you may be going through right now, the Lord knows<\/em> and He sees<\/em> and He is ready to save<\/em> you. \u00a0His timing is perfect. \u00a0 Whether He sends<\/em> a fish (or spares<\/em> you the fish), He is always on your side and He has a perfect plan.<\/p>\n

Do you know Him? I love Him so much that I want everyone to get to experience His love. If your answer is “no, I don\u2019t know God”, then I ask you to pray this simple prayer with me. \u00a0Today is your day and your life can change.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pray together<\/strong><\/span>: Dear God, I know I am a sinner and I need forgiveness. \u00a0I believe that Jesus, Your Son, shed His blood for me and my sins are forgiven. \u00a0I confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior and accept You in my heart. \u00a0Thank You for grace unlimited and for this new life that is mine through You. \u00a0In Your name I pray, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonah and the Big Fish I\u2019m sure if you have been to Sunday School ever in your life, you have heard the story of Jonah and the big fish. \u00a0Here is a little recap: God orders Jonah to go to Ninevah to warn them that God is going to smite them for their sins. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[338,1287,425,4157,6653,6654,6655,6656,589,6649,6650,1547],"class_list":["post-20404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-encouragement","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-jonah","tag-jonah-1","tag-jonah-2","tag-jonah-22","tag-jonah-and-the-big-fish","tag-kim-spring","tag-prayer-works","tag-provision-and-salvation","tag-sinners-prayer","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/jonah2.2prayer.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5j6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20404"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20420,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20404\/revisions\/20420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}