When Rock Bottom Becomes the Altar: Jonah’s Prayer

In this episode of the Press Movement Podcast, we continue our journey through Jonah — this time inside the belly of the fish. Jonah 2 captures one of the most unique prayers in Scripture: a cry of thanksgiving and deliverance from the depths of despair. Jonah had the opportunity to repent on the ship but chose not to. Only when he found himself swallowed by the fish did he finally cry out to God.

Lauren Shepherd joins us to break down this prayer verse by verse, showing how affliction often becomes the turning point that leads us back to God. We discuss how Jonah’s cry wasn’t born out of instant repentance but from affliction, and yet God heard him. This episode explores the importance of crying out to God from wherever you are — even when your “belly of the fish” looks like pain, trauma, or consequences of your own choices.

Discover how gratitude, honesty, and repentance can shift your situation, and why God uses even affliction with purpose — to bring us back into alignment with Him.

#Jonah2 #PressToPray #PrayerPodcast #ThanksgivingPrayer #DeliverancePrayer #FaithPodcast #PressMovementPodcast

Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said "press," prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. In this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what’s applying pressure to us. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Press Movement Podcast. Thanks for joining us today.

I am in the studio—I put that in quotes because we record everywhere—I’m in the studio with Lauren Shepherd, who is no stranger to the Press Movement Podcast. She’s going to take us further into the book of Jonah, and I am going to hand it over to Lauren. Take it from here, Lauren.

All right, guys. So today, we will be in Jonah chapter two, and this prayer is called a prayer of thanksgiving and deliverance. I’ll read it through first fully, and then we’ll kind of come back through a little bit, verse by verse, and break it down. I think a lot of us are familiar with the story of Jonah. We know that Jonah was given instructions, but he decided to disobey God. He was told to go to Nineveh and cry out against it, but Jonah decided that was something he didn’t want to do. In chapter one, it speaks about how he intentionally left the presence of the Lord. And so, we see Jonah leave, he gets on the ship, and there’s a storm that comes out—really, it’s Jonah’s fault. And so, there are people on the ship and they’re like, “Why is this happening? Cry out to your gods.” And Jonah’s like, “Throw me overboard and everything will be fine,” which is interesting to me, anyway, because Jonah could have repented right there.

That was one of my thoughts. But then we see that the Lord prepares a fish to swallow Jonah up, which brings us to chapter two, and Jonah gets to crying out—which, you know, makes sense. So, then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, and said:

“I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice. For Thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple.’ The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the depth closed me round about; the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever, yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thy holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”

And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon dry land.

Going back and looking at verse one, where Jonah talks about being in the belly of the fish, that’s the place where he began to cry out. And I think, even before we go into it, I had some questions—like with Jonah, prior to him being swallowed up by the fish, did he accept that he was about to die with being thrown overboard? Because surely he didn’t think he was about to swim to shore. And then my question was, does it always have to get to the place of being in the belly of the fish with Jonah? Why did it have to get there? I think his first opportunity for repentance was when he was on the ship. He could have cried out and repented there. We keep going and we see Jonah in the belly of the fish in verse one, and we see him—it says how he cried out in the belly of the fish. He got to that place where he finally opened up his mouth unto the Lord. I think there are a couple of things that stood out to me in verse one specifically. But initially, I was just thinking about how sometimes it has to hurt and get strenuous for us to cry out, but I don’t think it always has to be that way. I think we’ll get into that just a little bit more later. The key thing is that we must make crying out our response, because it does come down to a decision at the end of the day. But then also, with being in the belly of the fish, what stood out to me was how God, being God, can hear us from anywhere, but it’s up to us to cry out and for our hearts to be in the right place when we do so, to get His attention. In that place, it’s important how we come—not necessarily our location—but especially in moments like this, because Jonah couldn’t get to a church.

He was in the belly of a fish. He couldn’t get to his prayer closet, so it was the importance of how he came. Psalm 51 came up for me, verse 17, and it talks about how the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. The key point is that when we come to God with the right heart position, He won’t turn us away. Because at the end of the day, that’s His desire—for us to come to that place of repentance and where our hearts are truly in it. So, understanding that when we come to Him with a repentant heart, that’s His goal. I think even when we come in faith in that moment, my heart is now in the right place where the Lord will hear me.

Looking at verse one, I think with today, “trauma” is a buzzword for us, and with Jonah being in the belly of the fish, I think a lot of times we like to scream trauma, but we put trauma on ourselves. So in moments like this, Jonah didn’t have to be in the belly of a fish. Some things could have been avoided if we would have cried out or repented sooner. I know the Bible talks about how the Lord works all things together for good in Romans, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But for me, it’s like we don’t have to keep giving God stuff to work for our good because we’re making it harder on ourselves. I love that—I'm sorry, we don’t. Because even for me, I think about my life and how things I would have to work through mentally were because of what I put on myself, and I thank God that He’s working those things, but we don’t have to.

So, we keep going; we go to verse two, and we see really the reason that Jonah cried out. I think that was interesting as well. Jonah said, “I cried by reason of my affliction.” Jonah didn’t say, “I cried because I disobeyed the Lord. I cried because I was sorry.” He said, “I cried because it hurt,” which is valid. I’m not mad at that, but I think it made me appreciate or gave me a moment of gratitude for the affliction because of what came from it. Again, it took me to Psalms—Psalms 119, verses 67 and 71. He talks about, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word.” And then in 71, he said, “It is good for me”—and even the “it is” was like the present moment of it still being good and not “was.” He said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” In that moment, just being grateful for the affliction because at the end of the day, I think the Lord’s purpose for affliction, especially for His people, is usually repentance or working things in and out of us. We see that with Jonah, with him starting out about how the affliction kind of pushed him to the place of crying out, which is great.

I think people cry out for different reasons, but the point also is crying out. We get to verses three through seven, and Jonah kind of just gives a background of what he’s experiencing as he’s in the water, because he clearly wasn’t swallowed up by the fish immediately, with him saying the flood compassed him about, and waves passed over him, or the weeds wrapped about his head. He says the water compassed him even about to his soul. So, we just see Jonah really feeling the effects physically and to his soul. We keep going, where he talks about his soul fainted in him, and really that “faint” is looking at him growing weak or getting weary. That’s what caused him to remember the Lord, which is valid also, because I think you run and you get to a place where you try to do things on your own and they’re not working, and then all of a sudden you do remember the Lord, which is a good moment. But again, I think Jonah’s key thing was that he cried out. He didn’t just remember the Lord and then decide, “Oh, I’m not worthy,” or “I’m in the belly of the fish, it’s over.” He cried out, and so I think for us, it’s important that when we get to those moments—I think it’s a popular thing even now, talking about the bottom of the barrel—when you get there, you cry out instead of being prideful, instead of keeping quiet.

Then, verses eight through nine—this was one I had a hard time with a little bit, but the Lord helped. It says Jonah was really just explaining the approach we should have, basically, to receive mercy. So in verse eight specifically, he says, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” And I think Psalms 85:10 really hit this home for me, where it says, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” The key thing is, when we come to God, with observing lying vanities, you can really take yourself out of, or forfeit yourself from, receiving or experiencing God’s mercy when you’re not honest with Him. So Jonah’s like, “I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to, you know, not be honest about it or whatever. Instead, I’m coming to God with the sacrifice of thanksgiving,” and really in that moment, that’s all Jonah could sacrifice. He couldn’t go and burn an offering to God because he’s in the belly of a fish, so his thanksgiving was the only thing he could give in that moment. But I think, really, Jonah had a lot to be grateful for—the fact that he didn’t die multiple times. He didn’t die on the ship, or he didn’t die in the water. So, I think for ourselves, we would look back and think of all the moments that the Lord could have allowed us to die, where we wanted to run and we wanted to disobey, but He didn’t. Jonah’s gratitude was definitely warranted in that moment. Then, we just look through that verse and we see how we should approach God—with that honesty, and again, that heart posture. It was cool that Jonah, though he ran, knew how to approach God to get things right.

Eventually, we see in verse 10, the product of this prayer is that the Lord ended up allowing the fish to vomit Jonah out on dry land. My key takeaways from it are just a couple of things—really, looking at God’s heart for us and how God not allowing us to die in certain places is proof of His love. Even with this affliction, it speaks to how God’s goal with affliction is not necessarily to hurt us or harm us at all, but to get us to a place of repentance, where we turn and walk with Him or obey Him. With God, affliction always has intent and a purpose, and it’s really up to us, kind of what it’ll work out of us or in us, and it’s based on our response. For those that might be listening today, if you feel like you’re one—or you know you’re one—that’s in the belly of the fish and you’re feeling the effects of sin and disobedience, we can soak in it or try to feel bad or, whatever, walk in the conviction or the condemnation, I’ll say. But the key thing is that we get to crying out and that we get to repentance. So don’t be like Jonah and make there be a storm first, and then you say, “Throw me overboard,” and then you end up crying out in the belly of a fish.

Another thing that stood out to me is for our loved ones that may be in the belly of a fish. I think not to pray for their peace in this moment—that’s something I’ve had to learn—but to pray that affliction has its perfect work, basically, and that they turn to God. Because if people, if they’re in sin or wherever they are in the belly of the fish, and they don’t have these moments like Jonah where they feel the affliction, they’ll never turn. So be sure to pray that they turn to God and that affliction really just pushes them to Him. Really, just looking back and having that gratitude and really thanking God for letting it get bad enough for me to cry out, and not letting me die in it. Because some people don’t get to that point, and so I’m grateful for it. I’m grateful for feeling the effects to our soul so we could really get to a place of repentance and turn. Overall, just being grateful for affliction. I think you did an excellent job with Jonah. I feel like verse eight in some ways is so clutch because “they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.” I think that is a point of revelation for Jonah because he understood even more so how he got there. That just means don’t hold on to your own lies—your own empty lies. When you’re holding on to your own empty lies, you’re pushing away the mercy that you could have. And I think about that in terms of him because it seems in scripture that he was quite against the people he had to go prophesy to. He didn’t think they’d ever change. He seemed to look down on them. Just thought, “Y’all just—” I don’t know if it was beneath him, I don’t know if he was racist, I don’t know what it was. But he does bring up these things a lot, and he brings up those people. He says, "I’m a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord." He gives you that “better than them all” throughout Jonah, right?

But it seems like he starts to realize, “I’m holding on to something that’s keeping me from God’s mercy.” And sometimes we have to be willing, I believe, to let go of our own narrative—that would be the word, our own narrative—that justifies us being where we are. Because, like you said, Jonah didn’t just hop out the belly of the whale. Jonah recommended himself being thrown in. We covered that last week, how Jonah—"Hey, throw me in. I don’t even want to go." Okay, Jonah. But he was so committed to his narrative about who he is, who they’re not, that he lost hold of his own mercy. So, that’s why I believe this was so clutch in verse eight—getting to that point. “My narrative doesn’t matter. I’m going to sacrifice. I’m going to do what I owe you, God. Your salvation is from You.” In other words, that’s what we were arguing about. We were arguing about "You were going to save them," and I said, "No, I don’t want to go preach to them, because if I preach to them, You’re going to save them." And so, to say “Salvation is of the Lord” is to say it’s Your will, not mine.

Yeah, that’s good. I was just thinking about the alignment part of it. Yeah. And that’s what I was getting as you were talking. I understand how this prayer flowed for him, but I think, like so many, we get to see his humanity and his thought process in this, which is very cool because he’s definitely human. He’s definitely not happy to be there, and he doesn’t even like these people.

So, Lauren, what’s the final word you have for those listening?

One of the main things for me is not always letting it have to get to that place where it’s super difficult, because again, Jonah knew he was the problem before he told them to throw him overboard. I just thought that was crazy—that he could have repented right then and there. We don’t have to make it more difficult than it has to be. But at the same time, I think our hearts do have to get to a place where we truly have to repent. I guess for Jonah that was in the belly of a fish, but repentance is up to you. So, I think as soon as you observe that there’s a problem, or you’re the problem, or there’s something you can do to change, it’s best that you do so then.

I concur. I think she said it best when she said, “Repentance is up to you.” So, when you’re going through that process and you’re figuring out yourself and you’re not even really wanting to do some of the stuff, don’t shut God out of that process. Talk to Him anyway, because prayer reaches every single situation. Join the movement, join the community—like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at presstopray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet your voice is missing to God’s ears? I know some of us have prayed and we’re wondering, “How long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God’s not listening?” But God is listening for your voice. It’s too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice, and God wants to hear from you. It’s Too Quiet—a book about prayer. It’s designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit presstopray.com.