Recovery Devotional 331 A Taste of Hell

JMD Devotional 331 Jonah 2:1-7 A Taste of Hell

THEN JONAH prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly, and said, I cried out of my distress to the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your waves and Your billows passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of Your presence and Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to [the extinction of] life; the abyss surrounded me, the seaweed was wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms and the very roots of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Yet You have brought up my life from the pit and corruption, O Lord my God.

When my soul fainted upon me [crushing me], I earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.

What does it take to get our attention? Must we bask for three days in the digestive juices of a sea monster until we acknowledge God? In my life I had a great breach of faith when I was eighteen; though I loved God as a child, as a teenager I rebelled against His authority and tried to convince myself that there was no God. For seven years I languished, even trying to return on my own, but I was just going through the motions. My first Jonah experience was in the Army. Basic training stripped me of my family, friends, possessions, clothing, hair: my identity. The rigors I went through, out of shape and seven years older than most everyone else in my platoon, broke my arrogance and self-reliance as I repeatedly failed to keep up with my peers physically. The drill sergeants loved to abuse ‘college boy’, as they called me. God was all I had to get me through it. He was my lifeline.

More than a decade later, I again became arrogant and self-reliant and rebelled against His authority. This time my Jonah experience was a mental breakdown. It is bad enough to have a propensity for learning things the hard way, but even worse to have to learn and experience things twice. When you rely upon things to prop yourself up, and lust usurps your highest love for God, (and you belong to Him), He will clean house for you if you do not do it for yourself! Sometimes I cried out to God to just leave me alone; but that would have destined me for an eternal hell. Praise God for loving us enough to give us a brief taste of hell to redirect the course of our lives to a better end!

Dear God,

Thank You for loving me and being faithful to discipline me when I stray. I realize now that I did not come to You out of my own goodness (I have none apart from You); You drew me, You pursued me, You conquered my stubborn, self-destructive soul. I cannot believe You thought this was worth while; but I shudder from the terror of knowing the fate I deserved! I will praise You for all eternity; there are no shortage of reasons. My life is testimony of Your mercy. Thank You for loving me so much!

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

I originally produced these blogs between 2006 and 2007, which were then published in my book, JMD Recovery Devotionals. In 2010, I am sending these out to a few people as I review them and see if my point of view has changed.

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