Thanks “in Spite Of” - Jonah

“I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the LORD alone.”

Jonah 2:9

Pete stunned more than a few of his fellow believers when he stood up one Sunday morning and thanked God for the difficulties he had endured. In the space of one week, his mother had passed away, and he had lost his job just as his wife prepared to deliver their first child.

“No matter what happens to me,” Pete said, “I know that God is good and is looking out for me. I praise God for everything that comes my way because I know that something good will come of it.”

It’s easy to sing God’s praises from a mountaintop, but what about during those times in the valley? Can you praise God for your times of difficulty, your weaknesses, or your burdens?

The runaway prophet Jonah knew the value of praising God from a place of difficulty.

You remember the story. Jonah defied God’s command to preach to the people of Nineveh and fled in the opposite direction from where he had been told to go. As a result, he did some time in the belly of a sea creature.

Jonah was in a place so dark and foul that it defies human imagination. As he lay there struggling even to move, he found it within himself to speak thankfully to God.

Jonah didn’t have to ask, “Why me?” He already knew why. He had made a mess of his life, but now he prayed in repentance and thanked God in the very midst of his mess.

God knew that Jonah had come full circle.

Almost immediately after Jonah spoke these words of praise, God arranged for his freedom (see Jonah 2:10). God knew that Jonah’s words of thanksgiving and his promise to fulfill his vows as a prophet meant that he was ready and willing to obey God.

God wants you to speak words of thanksgiving and praise to him even when you are in a bad place in your life. Can you do as the apostle Paul instructs and “be thankful in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)?