#AbaMatinde2
Response in Times of
Adversity
by Paolo Marty Ocaya
written by Sheresh Eunice Cortes
Life is unfair. This statement has been
proven numerous times by each individual’s experiences. It’s a fact. There are
times when things just don’t go our way and we mumble under our breath, “This
is not my day”. How then do we respond to God during these times when He seems
unfair?
Perhaps you’ve heard yourself respond this
way:
Ang daya naman…
Ang sakit naman…
More often than not, we are too quick to
complain about untoward incidents that come our way. But there was a man named
Jonah who experienced such a misfortune – he was swallowed by a huge fish and
stayed in the fish’s belly for three days and three nights! (Jonah 1:17)
If we were Jonah, we might have gotten
angry at God for allowing such a thing to happen. But that’s not what happened
in the story…
“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to
the Lord his God.”
Jonah 2:1
This verse tells us that Jonah’s initial
reaction to his mishap wasn’t any kind of complaint. He prayed to God! And this
is one thing most of us forget when things don’t go our way. Most of the time,
our initial response to any kind of trouble is to grumble and question why such
things are given to us. We forget to look up to God and lift our worries to
Him.
Prayer has been too simple to us that it
somehow makes no impact in us.
This is what happens when our prayers
become just a ritual – it loses its impact on us. The problem with memorized
prayers is that it loses its essence and is reduced to a mere literary piece
being quoted repeatedly on specific events.
Prayer is not just some memorized speech.
It is an intimate conversation between us and God. He granted us this privilege
to personally talk to Him, so why do we take for granted such gift?
The condition of your prayer life
determines the quality of your spiritual life.
Lack of communication builds a wall between
the persons involved. It is the same with our relationship with God. If we
don’t regularly talk to Him, our spiritual life becomes lukewarm (eventually
cold!).
Going back to Jonah’s story, we can see
that in this particular time of adversity, he called out to God. Here are four
points that we can pick up from Jonah’s story about prayer in times of
difficulty.
1.
Pray
Desperately
“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 2:2
Jonah had been running away from God until
the fish swallowed him. Inside the belly of the fish, Jonah called out to God
finally. One of the reasons why difficulty is allowed in our lives is because sometimes we need to get hurt in order to
get up.
Admit it, most of the time we don’t come to
God unless we are in trouble. We need to
fall down before we look up to God. And this just proves that we cannot handle
things on our own. We need God, and so we need to pray desperately. By
‘desperately’, meaning we have to be sincere and to pour our hearts out when we
pray, surrendering everything to Him.
Praying desperately also helps us whenever
temptations come our way. Remember that God does not allow a temptation that we
cannot overcome. We need to ask Him desperately to provide a way out to triumph
over a temptation. People fall into sin because they fail to look up to Him
when the enemy entices them.
2.
Pray
in Humility
“You hurled me into the depths, into the
very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and
breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I
will look again at Your holy temple.’”
Jonah 2:3-4
In these verses, we can see that Jonah did
not complain about the things that God has allowed in his life. He was humble
enough to accept all of it. Like Jonah, we have to pray in humility. We have to
learn to accept whatever God allows in our lives, whether good or bad, because
either way He has a purpose.
When we don’t accept whatever God allows, we
complain a lot.
3.
Pray
in Faith
“The engulfing waters threatened me, the
deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the
mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But You, Lord my
God, brought my life up from the pit. When my life was ebbing away, I
remembered You, Lord, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple.”
Jonah 2:5-7
Jonah believed that God would hear him and
would lift him up from where he was. We can learn from these verses that when
we pray, we should have faith in God and trust His works. We should desire and
anticipate the answers, trusting that whatever God does, we still believe and
trust Him.
If you don’t trust God, you’ll have a difficult
time praying.
4.
Pray
with Gratefulness
“Those who cling to worthless idols turn
away from God’s love for them. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will
sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation
comes from the Lord.’”
Jonah 2:8-9
Jonah prayed with shouts of grateful
praise! He was inside the belly of the fish and he didn’t know when God
would rescue him but he prayed with a grateful heart, trusting that God knows
what He is doing and trusting God’s love for him. In the same way, we should
also pray with gratefulness because everything that God allows in our lives is
His will for us, and He lets it happen for a purpose because He loves us.
The gravity of our pain is nothing compared
to the gravity of God’s love.
The end of the 2nd chapter of
Jonah’s life was this:
“And the Lord commanded the fish, and it
vomited Jonah onto the dry land.”
Jonah 2:10
God reveals His sovereignty in our lives
when we allow Him to. Though He holds the universe in His hands, He is never
too busy to hear your call. During times of adversity, we can be rest assured
that God knows what He is doing, and that we can always talk to Him whenever
and wherever.
MAS MAKIKITA MONG MATINDE SI LORD KAPAG
MATINDE ANG PRAYER LIFE MO.
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