Sushi & Prayer- Jonah P2

Some of the things we go through at times can make us uncomfortable and annoyed even!
But we must realize God's plan is bigger and he has our good in mind! Pastor Juan's KEY THOUGHT last Sunday was: Your annoyance may be God’s arrangement.

God is more concerned about your wholeness than he is about your comfort!
Jonah was not comfortable, but he was safe due to God’s arrangement. Even when he was trying to run from God.

Running from God is like running on a elliptical machine… You exert all your energy, but you ain’t going anywhere!They only way God can get us to stop is to restrict us.

Can you imagine how restricted it must have felt inside the fish’s stomach? Smelly from all the rotten fish and algae… and not to mention all the stomach acids!
Believe it or not, God uses restriction to provide healing. Broken bone + cast = restrict movement = healing.

It was in the belly of the fish that Jonah began to develop the right spirit within him! How do we know that?

His prayer and worship. You can tell a lot about people by the way they pray and worship in the midst of their trouble.
We can have a pity party, or a praise party.

SO, HOW DO WE FIND HEALING INSIDE OUR FISH?
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1. Recognize God inside your distress. (Jonah 2:1-2)
Let’s go directly to God in our time of distress. It’s interesting how we can be so precise with our worries and so ambiguous with our prayers.

2. Recognize God’s arrangement, not your annoyance. (Jonah 2:3-6)
​The ship crew physically threw him into the sea, but God spiritually arranged it for Jonah’s salvation. Jonah was not ignoring facts, he just knows that facts were altered by God.

3. Recognize God’s word as your prayer of hope.

If you don’t know what to pray, learn His word and start praying his word over your life!
That’s exactly what Jonah did. This was his heart’s prayer, intertwined with God’s word.

Whenever you complain about being three days in the belly of the fish, remember that your savior, Jesus Christ, spent 3 days in the belly of the earth… But that didn’t contain Him… It didn’t stop him! Victory became His! And victory is yours!

Join us us this Sunday for Part 3 and bring a friend!