Just Call!

Last week I saw a joke about Jonah making rounds on WhatsApp. Someone had pieced together a satirical dialogue that could have occurred between Mr. & Mrs. Jonah, when the former returned home after disappearing without a trace for more than three days! How incredibly silly it would have sounded when his explanation for his absence was that he was swallowed by a fish. Lol.

Today I want to focus on what actually happened. In short, God gave the prophet Jonah an assignment, he decided to run in the opposite direction and so boarded a boat. God was not happy; He sent a storm to rock the boat, and Jonah was thrown overboard to preserve the lives of the other passengers. God caused a big fish to swallow Jonah and vomited him out after three days. He then completed the assignment.

Jonah 2 gives us an idea of how Jonah felt inside the fish and what went through his mind. In the end he realized that his only way out was to call on the Lord to save him. “He said, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord , you heard me!” Jonah 2:2

The very God who He disobeyed; the one he run away from; the one who punished him for running away, was the same one who could save him. Jonah knew that the fact that God had punished him for refusing the task did not mean God loved him any less, that God had stopped caring about him! He knew that God had not shut him in the fish’s belly and thrown away the key! In his distress, distress brought on by his own folly, Jonah called and the Lord heard and answered!

He could have decided to be silent in his anguish, allowed guilt over what he did to silence him. Jonah could have rationalized that his predicament was his fault and so it was up to him to get himself out. Instead he appealed to his Father who is merciful, who forgives and restores, to help him.

If God could hear Jonah from deep within a fish’s belly, He can hear you from anywhere. No situation you are in or no place you are at ( physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually) is so dark, so far, so bad that if you call on God He will not hear and answer you! So stop trying to figure it all out on your own; stop trying to save yourself and just call. I learnt long ago in Sunday School that God’s phone number is 333 ( Jeremiah 33:3). Yeah, just call!

Blessings,
Love, Lady Monica❤.