![[Photo of a Scripture verse]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/Jonah_2_2.jpg)
| From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.” |
| —Jonah 2:1-2 |
Have you ever gotten into a situation where you needed to cry out for help? Did someone come immediately to your aid?
Years ago, an acquaintance of mine drove her car off the road in a snow storm. Actually, she had earlier dropped an empty can of soda on the floor of her car. Instead of pulling to the side of the road, so she could retrieve the soda can, she kept driving on the Interstate. A bit later, the car in front of her suddenly came to a stop, as a gust of wind whipped the snow across the highway. When my acquaintance went to press on the brake pedal, the soda can had rolled underneath the pedal. The harder she pushed on the pedal, the more the soda can became wedged onto the bottom of the brake pedal impeding the braking of the car. To avoid hitting the stopped car ahead of her, she veered her car off the road. It rolled down an embankment and came to rest against a tree.
By God’s grace, she was not hurt. But, she couldn’t get the driver’s door open so she could exit the car. This was in those long ago days before cellular telephones. After a while, she heard a car stop along the road above her. So, she did what any of us would do, she called out for help. And, fortunately, a kindhearted individual came to her aid.
Every one of us gets into difficulty from time to time. We all need to seek the help of others. We cry out for help and trust that someone will come to our aid.
In our spiritual lives, as well as in our normal everyday lives, we need someone we can depend on to help us when we call out. The Prophet Jonah knew this, too. Notice what he writes, as he describes his time in the belly of the great fish, as recorded in Jonah 2:1-2:
From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”
Jonah recognized the extreme value of trusting that God would respond to his cry for help. Jonah knew that God was willing and able to provide the aid that Jonah needed. Jonah remember these words, “God is our refuge and strength,” from the magnificent song of Psalm 46:
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
This new day, let us not hesitate to cry out to God when we need help. He will always answer. He will always come to our aid.
