Praying In The Midst Of Trouble

“Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm ... The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. 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 ... I called for help, and you listened to my cry.’ ” Jonah 1:15-2:2 (NIV)
The prophet Jonah told the men on the ship that he was the cause of the storm. He also told them that they could calm the seas, save the ship, and save themselves if they threw him overboard. Reluctantly, they threw him overboard and Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. From the belly of the great fish, Jonah prayed.
Jonah’s problems went from bad to worse. He was caught in a great wind, then a violent storm, then thrown overboard, and swallowed by a great fish (which today we call a whale) before he began to pray. Like Jonah, we want to do things our way and not God’s way. Even when we get in trouble, in the midst of a storm, we persist. Only when our situation seems hopeless do we turn to God in prayer. We would do better if we prayed more often and followed His Word instead of doing what we see as right in our own minds. We should pray that He would order our steps and guide our tongues. If we spent more time reading The Word of God and praying, we would probably not be in the midst of trouble so often.