In Your Distress

Jonah 2:1

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.”

We were at Lake Buchanan and I was a young teenager. We were fishing and having a good time, me, my dad, and my brother. We were not catching much when I somehow got a treble hook caught in the skin of my thigh. One hook of the treble hook had completely gone in and out again, hooking my skin. Trying not to lose it, I held back my tears and proceeded to try and take it out. My dad said, “Let’s call Mom and get some help!”. To which I stated, “NO! She will only make us stop fishing! I can get it out.” I did remove the hook and I have the scar on my leg to prove it. I am sure Mom would have been a big help but I let my desire to fish overrule my better judgment. My better judgment can be debated if you really like fishing.

Chapter 2 of Jonah starts by telling us that the Lord provided a giant fish to swallow Jonah and he was there three days and nights. The very first verse tells us that Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. Now, you have to ask yourself, “What would I do if a fish swallowed me?” Praying to the Lord is the only thing Jonah could have done. I cannot think of a more trapped place to be than in the belly of huge fish after being thrown overboard upon Jonah’s own request. You can see here that getting swallowed by a fish was step two in the redemptive process. Step one was admitting that he the cause of the storm. The giant fish was step two. Step three was the prayer in the middle of his distress.

Often times I look back at the past and wonder if I have done what Jonah did in verse 1.  How much time have I wasted in my distress by simply not calling to the Lord?  If you think about it, Jonah still spent three days in the belly of the fish. His prayer, well, that reads like it took about 10 minutes with more than adequate pauses.  Just like the storm being caused by Jonah disobeying the Lord, after you pray the distress prayer you may have to spend a while in the belly of the fish before God spits you out on the shore of the place you should have been before you ran from God. Your real-life distress might not be over the minute you call upon the Lord but He will, as it says in verse 6 “bring my life up from the pit.”  You may feel like you have been spit out on dry land and your immediate issue is looking a little better than before, but the Lord has much more for you to do.  Don’t waste time not calling on the Lord during your distress. Who knows, Mom may have removed the hook with less pain that day and probably quicker as well, but I let myself get in the way. Sure, we might have been banned from fishing for the rest of the day, but I would not be writing about it if it happened any other way. God can take the pain and suffering from your distress and turn it into a testimony for the Lord. The real question is have you called upon the Lord in the middle of your distress or have you been trying to fix what only God can fix? The Lord is with you even in the middle of your distress .