Praying in a Strange Place
1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly.
2. And said, “I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell I cried, and You heard my voice.”
Jonah 2:1-2
The Right Place to Pray
If I mentioned Green Eggs and Ham, most would readily recognize the title of the children’s book by Dr. Seuss. Yet the book has a theme that fits many adult attitudes with regards to change. People don’t like to change, and they assume that if something has been done a certain way for a certain amount of time, it should not be altered. That’s a dangerous concept. So, we struggle with actually trying new options. Then we also struggle with the old options as they become less and less effective and less and less desirable. How this applies to prayer is the fact that prayer is very mobile and can be offered to God at any time and from any place. For that reason, prayer should always be the expression of our sincere desire to meet with God.
I would argue that it is a prayer myth to assume that God only hears our prayer from a mountaintop or a place with a steeple. It is a prayer myth to think that God only hears us when we are standing before some large body of water or while we are gazing at the sunset. Granted, those scenes provide a wonderful backdrop for prayers, and they certainly inspire us to pray. Jesus took three of His Disciples to the mountaintop and was transfigured before them so much that His countenance was changed and shined with the Glory of God. They were so inspired that they said, “it is good for us to be here.” That is how awesome mountaintop prayers can be. Yet, praying to God is not limited to such places.
There have been some unusual places of prayer that have been captured in Scripture. Moses prayed and talked to God when the Lord appeared in a burning bush. In that passage, God commanded Moses to take off his sandals because he was standing on Holy Ground. That was a strange place to pray in that it was a wilderness. It was a solitary place where Moses was feeding sheep, and yet God appeared to him.
Abraham made a place of prayer at every altar he built. There were no synagogues or temples where Abraham could commune with God, so he built altars at every location he could find. Abraham communed with God on a regular basis and would erect altars to remind himself of God’s Goodness. The altars and places of prayer were all through the land as Abraham was in constant communication with the Lord. His philosophy regarding prayer was, “you can never have too much prayer.” It is no wonder that God considered Abraham to be His friend.
Daniel was a praying man, but he was separated from his people as well as from his homeland. Yet Daniel learned that God heard his prayer even while he was held as a captive in the strange land of Babylon. So, Daniel opened his windows to Jerusalem and prayed to God. While that was a strange place to pray, his prayer was so effective that it stirred up his enemies. Daniel’s adversaries were so determined to stop his worship that they conspired together and had him sentenced to the lions’ den. Yet, even from the lions’ den, God heard Daniel’s prayer and delivered him from death. We learn a valuable lesson that we can offer prayers to God from any place.
Thus, we can conclude that the right place to pray is any place. The prayer must be sincere. The prayer must honor God. Wherever there is an opportunity to pray, the place of prayer does not matter. Any place is the right place when you need to pray.
God will Pick the Place of Prayer
Jonah’s prayer was perhaps one of the strangest places from which to call on the Almighty. As you may recall, Jonah was the prophet who was running away from his assigned duties. Rather than taking the message of repentance to the Assyrian people, this guy decided he would go in the opposite direction towards Tarshish instead of heading to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. He never prayed before making the decision. He just went with his feelings and caught the first ship sailing out of Joppa with a destination of Tarshish. Well, you know the story of how God interrupted his trip with a great storm. The mariners were so afraid because this was no normal storm to them. Someone had offended their god and they cast lots to find out. Through all of this, Jonah did not pray. Rather than praying, Jonah asked the crew to throw him overboard and that would calm the sea. Amazingly, his suggestion worked but things got worse for Jonah rather than getting better. God had prepared a large fish that swallowed Jonah and reminded him that he needed to pray. It is from the belly of the fish that Jonah offered a powerful prayer from one of the strangest places on earth.
Jonah teaches us five great truths about praying to God in a strange place. The first lesson is that Jonah was in a low place and needed prayer. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly. Disobedience will definitely bring you to a low place. Yet there are times when you could be doing everything correctly and find yourself in a low place. Jonah’s downward progression started with disobedience. He went down to Joppa. He caught a ship that was headed down to Tarshish. Then Jonah decided to go down in the lower part of the ship to sleep. Finally, he was cast into the sea and went down into the waters. While the low place is a needy place and so often a place of helplessness, it is also a place of prayer. Someone has said, “our best prayers come forth when we have been knocked down by life.” Jonah prayed unto the Lord His God. The low place is a good place to start praying.
Not only was Jonah’s prayer from a low place, it was also a place of life or death. When your life is on the line, priorities change really quick. I’m not exactly sure what Jonah was thinking when he asked to be thrown overboard. I do know that he complained to God several times that he wanted to die and not live. But until you are prepared to die, you should not request something so permanent. Maybe to ask God for better understanding would be a more appropriate prayer. When Jonah hit rock bottom in the belly of the fish, that was prayer time. Jonah realized that there was no way out of that fish alive unless God intervened. So, he said, “I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell I cried.” The word “hell” has often been interpreted as the fiery place of punishment, but the reference here is “Sheol” in the Hebrew meaning place of the dead. Please note, he wanted to go to Tarshish located on the southern tip of Spain. He didn’t realize that God had changed his sailing plans to include a trip in the belly of the fish with a final destination of Sheol unless he had a change of heart. At any time, God can change your plans but at no time will God change His plan. I would say that life or death is pretty good motivation to pray.
The third lesson we learn is that Jonah was out of God’s Will and needed a way back to the Lord’s side. Make no mistake about it, God could have written Jonah off and given His assignment to someone else, but Mercy said “no.” Thus, the belly of the fish is now turned into an altar of repentance towards God. Jonah 2:4, is where we see the prophet reaching the turning point on his third day inside the fish’s belly. Then I said, I am cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again towards Your Holy Temple. Question: how in the world did he have any sense of direction in the belly of the fish? Answer: Jonah realized he was out of God’s Will, so he was really talking about getting it right with God. Every prayer we pray should include that attitude. We need to recognize when we are cast out of God’s sight and with earnest desire we should cry out for God to bring us back to His Holy Temple. That is the purpose of prayer: to get us right with God and to align our will with His Will.
Jonah’s strange place was a low place. Jonah was in a life or death situation. Jonah was out of God’s Will. Despite the poor environment for prayer, God heard Jonah’s prayer from the belly of the great fish. Listen to Jonah’s testimony of what happened. He said, “I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell I cried, and You heard my voice.” Those are sweet words to hear for those who have been praying for God to answer. This is where we apply this to our situations and circumstances. This demonstrates the Goodness and Mercy of God. If you are in a low place, then pray. If you are in a circumstance where life and death are in the balance, then pray. Even if you are out of God’s Will, you still need to pray. When you kneel down and humble your heart, God promises to hear your prayer from anywhere.
The fifth lesson is even more incredible. God not only heard Jonah’s prayer; God saved Jonah. Let’s recap his situation. Three days had expired in the belly of the great fish. Jonah had fainted numerous times trying to hold on to life. As he began to lose consciousness that final time, that is when the prayer connection took hold. At that point God spoke to the fish and it spat Jonah out. The fish literally beached itself and vomited out Jonah. When Jonah prayed from that strange place, God Almighty brought Jonah back to life and back to his mission. And the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land. Jonah 2:10.
In closing, we reflect on Sam I Am’s question, but we change the phrase to read, “Would you pray.” Would you pray in a boat or in a pen filled with goats? It does not matter what the place as long as I can pray for God’s Grace. Pray, pray, pray.