While Sitting in the “Belly of the Whale”…

One of the most fascinating stories in the Bible is about Jonah and his disobedience. In the Book of Jonah 1^st Chapter, it discusses how God asked Jonah to go to Ninevah. He refused. He found a ship going to Tarshish, thinking he was hiding from the presence of the Lord. When the sea became turbulent, he told the men aboard. He recommended he be thrown overboard. Once he was in the sea, it calmed. The Lord prepared “a big fish” (whale) to swallow him. He remained in it for three days and three nights.

Jonah 2:2 (NKJV): “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.” After intense prayer for three days and nights, in Verse 10: “So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

Oftentimes I have felt like Jonah, as he sat in the belly of the whale.

When the Lord needs you to do or say something & you go on your own assumptions of how or even if you will do it…the Lord has a way of “swallowing you & resting you in the whale’s belly” until you are ready to OBEY HIM.

Many of us are “sitting in the whale’s belly” right now. This may be in the form of unhappiness, inadequacy, dissatisfaction, longing, or “feeling stuck in a rut.” Jonah figured it out in three days. Many of us continue “sitting in the whale’s belly” for years and still don’t get it.

GOD wants our obedience. HE is in control and has a plan for our lives.

Once we understand this and surrender to Him, we can be “vomited” out and begin our journey toward living with Him for eternity.

Remember…time means nothing to the Lord. 100 years to us may only be a second for the Lord. The Bible says in Isaiah 55:8 (NKJV): “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

How long are you going to continue “sitting in the belly of the whale” before you become obedient to GOD?  How long??.....