Pentecost – Day 3 (27 June)

It is a sad truth, but we mainly pray in times of trouble and disaster. We often realise our dependence on God when we are in distress. I personally experienced this again when I spent seven hours, in an ambulance, on my way to the hospital for an emergency operation. During this trip, quite a few scriptures from the Bible were running through my head, like this passage where Jonah cries out to God from the fish’s belly: “In my trouble I called to the LORD; I called to my God for help. In his temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help” (Jonah 2:2).

The narrator of Jonah’s story paints a picture of someone who cries out to the Lord from the deepest depths and, yet, experiences the most miraculous power and presence of God, because it is not our need that teaches us to pray – it is God’s Spirit. Through his Spirit, God is present everywhere. God is always with us – he is not limited to time or space. Jonah had to learn this first. It does not help to try to run away from God. We need God in our lives. We cannot live without him.

The purpose of prayer is not to twist God’s arm to help us. Prayer is really just a confession to remind ourselves of our dependence on God. As Jonah indeed confesses: Help comes from the Lord alone. Once he realises this, the fish spits him out. In other words, it is like he is born again and given a second chance at life. The presence of God’s Spirit in our lives makes us new people who can prayerfully confess our dependence on God.