{"id":12846,"date":"2013-01-13T13:58:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T02:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=12846"},"modified":"2013-08-21T18:11:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T07:11:59","slug":"16-days-with-jonah-day-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2013\/01\/13\/16-days-with-jonah-day-7\/","title":{"rendered":"16 Days with Jonah: Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonah 2:1-9<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1<\/sup><\/em>From inside the fish Jonah prayed to \u00a0 the LORD his God. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

2<\/sup><\/em> He said:\u00a0\u201cIn my distress I \u00a0 called to the LORD,
\nand he answered me.
\nFrom deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
\nand you listened to my cry.
\n3<\/sup> You hurled me into the depths,
\ninto the very heart of the seas,
\nand the currents swirled about me;
\nall your waves and breakers
\nswept over me.
\n4<\/sup> I said, \u2018I have been banished
\nfrom your sight;
\nyet I will look again
\ntoward your holy temple.\u2019
\n5<\/sup> The engulfing waters threatened me,
\nthe deep surrounded me;
\nseaweed was wrapped around my head. <\/em><\/td>\n

6<\/sup><\/em> To the roots of the mountains I sank \u00a0 down;
\nthe earth beneath barred me in forever.
\nBut you, LORD my God,
\nbrought my life up from the pit.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a07<\/sup> \u201cWhen my life was ebbing away,
\nI remembered you, LORD,
\nand my prayer rose to you,
\nto your holy temple. <\/em><\/p>\n

8<\/sup><\/em> \u201cThose who cling to worthless idols
\nturn away from God\u2019s love for them.
\n9<\/sup> But I, with shouts of grateful praise,
\nwill sacrifice to you.
\nWhat I have vowed I will make good.
\nI will say, \u2018Salvation comes from the LORD.\u2019\u201d <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Inside a fish is perhaps the strangest place from which a person has ever prayed!<\/p>\n

Jonah\u2019s prayer recounts his dramatic descent deep in the realm of the dead <\/em>and God\u2019s bringing him to life from the pit when his life was ebbing away.<\/p>\n

During my prayer pilgrimages around Tasmania in 2004 and 2010, I prayed from schools, prisons, parishes, hospitals, homes and mountains, but never from the belly of a fish!<\/p>\n

It is true that certain circumstances in life seem to evoke a greater passion for prayer. Often intense times of prayer occur during sickness, unemployment, family breakdown, conflict \u2013 in other words, in times of distress.<\/p>\n

I find it easy to ask God for things. Many an immature person wants, wants, wants, and wants! A sign of maturity is being thankful for life, even in all its turmoil, and asking where we might make a contribution.<\/p>\n

I can learn from Jonah here. While Jonah sets out his plea to God under circumstances of his distress, nevertheless, he continues on to acknowledge God\u2019s saving work in him. His shouts of grateful praise are accompanied by his vow to make good<\/em> and his affirmation that Salvation comes from the LORD<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Listening God, I worship and adore you, ever grateful for your person and your world. Thank you that we can communicate, regardless of where I am or in what circumstances I find myself. I know that your people are a people at prayer. Help me, please, to be at prayer. Amen. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonah 2:1-9 1From inside the fish Jonah prayed to \u00a0 the LORD his God. 2 He said:\u00a0\u201cIn my distress I \u00a0 called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[2399],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12846"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12846"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14139,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12846\/revisions\/14139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}