"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."
Jonah 1:17
Reading this today, I was thinking that this is probably where Jonah's life bottomed out. Obviously most of us are not in the middle of the ocean, swallowed by a whale, but I think that we experience something similar when we rebel against the Lord as Jonah did.
Following the Lord doesn't make everything in life go right, but rebelling against him can definitely make lots of things go wrong... I think because "all things" aren't working together for our good anymore, which can definitely feel like a wrench in the works if we are used to some of the blessings of being friends with God.
And when life bottoms out and we realize that we desperately need God in our lives, it can feel awful, needing something we don't have and having that hole of "something missing" in our lives, and knowing that we don't like where we are, but still not being all excited, and maybe even being sort of ashamed, about turning around after our rebellious attitude. So, maybe we have to sit there in that hell of our own making for three days and three nights... or however long it takes for us to decide that we need to change and do something different.
It's important to remember at times like this though, that the time *is* limited. God invites us back, and our circumstances will improve. Let's not lose hope when things bottom out, but let's use that experience as the impetus that we need to make a change. Let's turn to the Lord and work things out with him.
Jonah 1:17
Reading this today, I was thinking that this is probably where Jonah's life bottomed out. Obviously most of us are not in the middle of the ocean, swallowed by a whale, but I think that we experience something similar when we rebel against the Lord as Jonah did.
Following the Lord doesn't make everything in life go right, but rebelling against him can definitely make lots of things go wrong... I think because "all things" aren't working together for our good anymore, which can definitely feel like a wrench in the works if we are used to some of the blessings of being friends with God.
And when life bottoms out and we realize that we desperately need God in our lives, it can feel awful, needing something we don't have and having that hole of "something missing" in our lives, and knowing that we don't like where we are, but still not being all excited, and maybe even being sort of ashamed, about turning around after our rebellious attitude. So, maybe we have to sit there in that hell of our own making for three days and three nights... or however long it takes for us to decide that we need to change and do something different.
It's important to remember at times like this though, that the time *is* limited. God invites us back, and our circumstances will improve. Let's not lose hope when things bottom out, but let's use that experience as the impetus that we need to make a change. Let's turn to the Lord and work things out with him.
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