Real Prayer

Jonah 1:17 – 2:10

To concentrate so much on what happened inside the great is to miss what happened inside .

To do so we must turn to Jonah’s from inside the monster.

Here we see a truly great .

It shows that though Jonah had been brought to within the fish, he nevertheless found the of God in his misery.

He found that he might have God, but, God had not him.

There are principles or characteristics of all true prayer!

1^st There is !

Many prayers are attempts to get God to let us do something He has already .

Many of us attempt to explain our difficulties .

For You threw me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current flowed around me. All Your breakers and waves passed over me. So I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ Water encompassed me to the point of death. The deep flowed around me, Seaweed was wrapped around my head.  I descended to the base of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit,  Lord my God.
Jonah 2:3-6

Jonah acknowledged God’s was in this.

“You hurled me.”

We all need to realize it is always better to into the of God than into anything else.

Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”
2 Samuel 24:14

2^nd There is !

It means – .

Without this there will most likely be .

We see Jonah’s penance in:

1. He took the .
2. He did not God for .

Jonah was genuinely for his .

3^rd There is !

Jonah had found God’s , thus His .

Thanksgiving happens when a person comes to acknowledge their and it before God, and when, as a consequence, God the broken Creator-creature relationship.

4^th There are and .

But I will sacrifice to You With a voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord. Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
Jonah 2:9-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9