Quotation: Romans, 8:26
This is one of my favorite verses. This short verse is filled with messages from God: 'Our weakness' and 'we do not know how to pray as we should'. Amen. The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep. I still struggle to truly understand the deeply hidden meaning of this sentence. I never imagined I would be the age of 57. I first encountered Jesus when I was 18 years old. I remember, as I look back at my life so far, that very often when I truly needed the power of prayer, I was left standing without any words of prayer coming out of my mouth. We always need to remind ourselves that our prayers are always meager and lacking. At the same time, I think that true prayers are something squeezed out of our hearts, at the bottom of pain and suffering, although they may not be expressed in words. 1Samuel, 1:13-15
Prayers are something poured straight out of one's soul. There should be no rules or grammar for prayers. I know this brother who happened to be a good friend of mine. We talked over the phone very often. He suffers from a serious mental illness which keeps him from gathering at the assembly. He lives by himself and he calls me from time to time to ask me to pray over the phone for him. He says, "I made an appointment to see the doctor today, but I don't feel well and I don't feel like leaving home. Hey, Yocchan, you have to pray for me quickly." When he asks me to pray for him in this way, it sounds so natural, and it makes me think of what true prayers should be like. I wish I could be someone who doesn't hesitate to cry out his prayers to Jesus, someone who pleads for His help with any matter. There are a number of famous prayers in the Bible other than the prayer of Hannah we just read. Learning some of such prayers by heart is sometimes helpful, especially when we don't know how to pray. I picked up the prayer of Jonah today. Let's take a quick look at this prayer so that we can familiarize ourselves with it. I will be happy if you simply get some idea as to how this prayer was prayed, and if it becomes one of your favorite prayers to open from time to time. Jonah, 2:1
It was the year 700 BC. There was a big country called Assyria, and Nineveh was its largest city. Jonah was commanded by God to repent and make a mission trip there, but he refused and tried to flee to Spain. During his attempted escape, God sent a big storm to the ship Jonah was aboard. After a while, Jonah realized that the storm was a message sent from God to punish him. He understood that he had to die to save the others and instructed the sailors to throw him overboard. However, God sent a huge fish to save Jonah's life. It was such a strange and miraculous story that a man could survive inside the stomach of fish. Jonah, 2:2
In this verse, he said that the true prayer came out when he cried in pain. Brother Beck often says that people only pray when they suffer. We actually learn how to pray when we are anguished, when we are agonized. Jonah, 2:3-5
Flood waters encompassed me, the deep surrounded me while seaweeds wrapped around my head. I guess that we all must be pushed into such depths as seen in verse 5 to learn to cry out to Jesus. It might be the depth called pain or the depth called loneliness that you have to endure in front of Jesus. In our lives, we unknowingly look for something other than Jesus to rely on, but the time will come when we fall to the bottom of the depths. I guess it will be then that we finally look to Jesus alone. As I look back on my life, I recall some troubling ordeals I went through. They might have been of relatively shallow depth, but they were very difficult times for me nevertheless. I broke down because of the vicious cycle of a serious sleep disorder even though I had always believed I would never fall down so easily. Since I was a little child, I have suffered from chain of diseases, including pleurisy, asthma and hepatitis, but I always refused to give in to the pain, and I never allowed them to keep me away from school or work. Such experiences made me believe that I would be the last person to break down and surrender to the pain. However, the day came when I couldn't stand the severe anxiety anymore, which prevented me from sleeping. I even had difficulty working normally in the daytime. I then began to groan in suffering. It was the first time in my life I felt that there was nothing to support me inside. And I suppose it was the first time that I was finally able to cry out to Jesus from the bottom of my heart. Jonah, 2:5
This verse shows me what men look like when they drown. Very often we can't help but complain to the Lord. Why did it take you so long to help me if you were willing to do so? If you pulled me up earlier, I would not have had to suffer so much! I guess many of us have had such experiences. However, if the Lord extends His hands to us before we sink down to the bottom of the water, we may not realize that we were saved because of the compassion of Jesus alone. Thus, the Lord must wait until the moment when we can't endure anymore. I am constantly impressed by brilliant believers who learned to pray through some unimaginable ordeals. When I met one of such believers at a Bible Camp and heard all about her family problems, I couldn't think of any words to say to her because her situation was beyond my imagination. However, she said that she would not worry about it anymore because everything was out of her own hands. Instead, she said she was relieved because she could finally rely on Jesus alone. I talked with her until late and thought that this was what a true prayer should look like. I was encouraged because she looked rather peaceful and didn't look strained at all. Jonah, 2:6-7
In another version of the Bible, the last verse is translated much simpler; As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord. When he cried out in pain and fear, his prayer reached the Holy Temple of the Lord. In many parts of the Old Testament, people built altars to memorialize the places where they received their blessings, or piled up stones at the points where they prayed to God. Noah built an altar at the point where he landed for the first time after the Great Flood. While Jacob was traveling in the wilderness, he had a dream of a ladder set up between the earth and heaven. After he woke, he took the stone that he had used for his pillow and set it up as a pillar to memorialize that place. Joshua picked up some stones from the bottom of the Jordan River and set them down as a memorial of the miracle that the Lord did for them. Joshua, 3:13
Joshua, 4:3
Joshua, 4:7
We too need to build a monument for when our prayers were answered by the Lord. Once we put up the stones to commemorate each prayer and blessing, we have to keep such places in our minds so that we can come back to them whenever we lose our way and don't know which way to go. When I suffered from mental problems and a serious sleep disorder which prevented me from sleeping for many days, I bought a kit for oil painting and went out into the field for sketching. Since then, Jesus has kept a hold on me. I feel very peaceful when I return to that place. By placing a stone at every point where we prayed to Jesus and where Jesus answered the prayer, we can have places to go back to, places we can remember to gain peace of mind. Joshua and his men must have come back to look at the stones from the river whenever they felt that their faith was slipping away from them. God helped them to cross the river where there was no bridge. We all have some places where we have, at one time or another, desperately prayed to God. Every time we come back to such places and see the monuments, it gives me peace of mind. Jonah, 2:9
According to the footnote in my Bible, the last sentence, "Salvation is of the Lord" can also be interpreted as "Salvation comes from the Lord". Psalms, 60:11
Psalms, 33:16-17
Much has been said of salvation, but actually, nothing in this world can truly save us. Psalms, 121:1-2
If we seek to live a faithful life in this world, it can't help but be accompanied by pain. The Bible says that we suffer from these pains because God allows it. It is God's way of telling us to truly pray and cry out to Him. In these instances of pain we pray, and when the Lord answers, we pile up another stone to memorialize when and where God helped us. Then, we look at the stone and stand before the next pain. I guess that after all, this is how the Christians' lives move forward in this world. I would like to conclude this sermon with two prayers from Psalms, which remind me of the prayer of Jonah. Psalms, 61;2
Psalms, 142:3
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