The Sovereignty of God

By Jasmine Britto, Kerala, India

Day 5

Jonah 2:1-2

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 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.

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. The use of the phrase, ‘his God,’ shows Jonah’s personal relationship with God. 

Jonah’s prayer is not a request to save him from the fish, but thanksgiving for being saved by the fish. Jonah was grateful that he was brought inside the fish -- the cold, dark, lonely place -- where he needed to be confronted with what he was doing and encounter God. God used the fish to save Jonah from drowning and he used the fish to bring about Jonah’s repentance.

It is often those difficult times in our lives that God uses to refine us, though from the outside they might look like an impossible trial. As God is refining us, as he is bringing us to a place of repentance so we can look more like him, God’s desire is to use those difficulties ultimately to save us. 

Sometimes, when we are walking in our own way, that way leads to death (Proverbs 14:12). So sometimes the difficult things in our lives, the things we wish we could somehow escape from, are God’s means of providence in our lives. He is able to use those things to bring us to him, to bring us to a place of repentance so that we can turn from our sin and turn to him.

When we go through a difficult time in our lives, we might be tempted to see others’ sins, but we need to see first the sin in our own hearts and our need for God. We also need to remember that God doesn’t always spare us from the hard circumstances in our lives; but he uses those circumstances to do a profound work in us.

When we ask God to take us out of difficult situations, do we also take the time to look into our hearts?

Prayer Focus

Today let’s ask God to help us see the work He is doing in our hearts through thecircumstances we find ourselves in.