Pray When You’re In The Belly ("2 Questions" Day 6)

What must Jonah have pondered from inside the belly of the great fish? When he didn't know what to do... he did what he knew to do: Jonah prayed. In this episode, Rachael and Matt share questions and statements to consider about Jonah's state of mind during the dark three days, what might have occupied his prayer's in this desperate moment, and how God provided for Jonah in most unusual ways.

Click Here for week two homework sheet

BEFORE this episode: Complete DAY SIX Homework (Jonah 2:1)

CONGRATULATIONS! You've completed our first "How to Study the Bible" six-day workshop. We hope God has blessed you as you learn to use two questions and a statement to draw nearer to Him in His Word. No homework today before our next episode. Pray that God will prepare your heart to hear from His Spirit as we will next introduce our second Bible study method: "From Their Home to Our Home."

Transcript

Promise Of A Fruitful Faith

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Do you ever feel like your life just isn't as productive or effective as it should be? As followers of Jesus, we want our short time on earth to have eternal impact, but often we feel like we're falling short. The good news is that Scripture gives us a promise, a life that's never ineffective or unproductive in knowing Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter 1, we're told to build on our faith, adding goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love. As these qualities grow, they keep us fruitful and effective for God's kingdom. I'm Matt Morrow, and my wife Rachel and I have spent nearly 20 years teaching God's word and walking with people in every stage of faith. Our passion is to see lives permanently and radically transformed by Scripture applied. Adding to your faith is here to help you understand biblical truth, practice it daily,

Meet Matt And Rachel

SPEAKER_03 1:05

and grow to look more like Jesus. We're glad you're here. Let's walk this journey together.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Hi,

Method: A Statement And Two Questions

SPEAKER_00 1:19

welcome. I'm Rachel, and I'm here with Matt, and we are on day six of week two of How to Study Your Bible, and we are working through the method of a statement and two questions, which is exactly what the method is that you read the verse and you write a statement and two questions that help you look for things that are timeless truths about the Lord, things that are showing you God's character, God's nature, things that are true about what he says about us. And then asking him to show you what you can apply. What is he calling you to do differently, to think differently, to to kind of, you know to live differently. And ask him to show you those things as you're reading his word. And so I will say it every time, and I'm gonna say it again. If you have not spent time in Jonah 2, verse 1, please pause this podcast and go spend some time, just you and the Lord, in this verse and ask him to show you these things for yourself. And then once you do that, you're ready to come and join us and talk about those things. But but please do do this work yourself. Don't just let this podcast be your time in the word. Go do that. Move that reading to prayer. Ask the Lord, you know, what to show you those things. And then from those verses, are there things that you need to be praying to the Lord to praise him or to ask him for things that you recognize that you need in your life? And then move that to meditation. Are there things that the Lord's showing you from that passage that you want to meditate on, that you want to think about today, or that you want to memorize, that you want to commit to memory? And sometimes even those phrases, which is which is one that we're gonna get today, is really a phrase.

Invitation To Study Jonah 2:1

SPEAKER_00 3:16

But goodness, can they be powerful to us when we're in the midst of of different situations in life? And so, Matt, if you would like to open us in prayer, we'll dive into Jonah 2, verse 1.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

I sure will. Thank you. Let's go ahead and and go before the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you so much for the good and thorough work that you are doing even this week, as we as we learn and practice new ways to just tune our hearts and tune our ear to your movement, the movement of your spirit, both in our hearts and through the power of your word. God, thank you for for for opening

Opening Prayer

SPEAKER_03 3:52

my eyes to a to a new way to do this, for me, a new way to do this, and and just to be able to practice some of these disciplines that just help us go deeper in your word, and by doing that have a more a more personal, intimate connection and relationship with you, which is the goal of all of this. Lord, I pray that you will go ahead of us into your word today as we revisit Jonah. I thank you for giving us this incredible story, Lord, this incredible uh picture of your of your mercy and your grace and your holiness and your justice and all of those things together, Lord, and one. Your character just pours out through this book. And so I pray, Father, that you'll uh open our eyes, our ears, our hearts to what you want to show us today in your word. And I pray that as we do that, that we'll just stand in awe and wonder of your goodness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Jonah’s Predicament Reviewed

SPEAKER_03 4:48

So we left Jonah in a precarious spot yesterday. We left him in the belly of the great fish, and that's that's we were just in in that one verse, which is verse 17 of chapter one of Jonah, and the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And we had, and I know you did too, if you're listening and you've been faithful to work through uh this process each of the last five days or so. I believe that the Lord is giving you increasing numbers of questions and statements and observations about his word as you get more comfortable with using this method. That's what I believe that because that's what's happening for me. As we talked about earlier, Rachel's very familiar with this, with this method, but I hadn't really used it before. And just in a few days, he's giving me more and more questions and statements. And I've noticed, I hope you have too, that when I lay my head down at night and I'm thinking through some of my time in the word, other questions and other statements and observations about that continue to come. That's the prompting of the Holy Spirit. That's the Spirit working in us to bring to mind things from his word and prompt us to ask questions of the Lord to go deeper and deeper into it. That's beautiful. I love it. I hope you're experiencing

Jonah 2:1 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_03 6:07

that too. Today we get to pick up in what for us turns over to chapter two. Of course, there weren't originally chapters and verses in in the Bible, so, but that's just a way for us to find things. So we go into chapter two of Jonah, verse one, and and we left him in the belly of the fish. And what's Jonah going to do with his time there? Well, why don't you tell us?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Jonah 2.1. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the valley of the fish.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

That's it.

Pray When You Don’t Know

SPEAKER_03 6:34

So I think one of the great things about this one short little verse is that you have to sort of think about what it must have been like to be Jonas in this moment. We know what happens next. We know the rest of the story, and we can read ahead, and we can we can get he didn't know any of that. He's in the belly of this fish, and I mean Jonah had no way probably of knowing whether he was gonna be, whether he was just slowly dying there, or whether he was gonna in some way be rescued in a way that was just as unimaginable or unexpected as the way that the fish gobbled him up, but but we we just don't know what what he was thinking and he didn't know what to think in all likelihood. So what did he do? He prayed. He prayed. He prayed. Yeah, when you I had a pastor one time who said, When you don't know what to do, do what you know to do. And that's almost always praying, right? When you don't know what to do, do what you know to do. So as you think about Jonah's response in this in this moment, in these three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, Rachel, are there are there questions that you have? Are there observations or statements that you can make about this very simple short sentence of a verse?

SPEAKER_00 7:48

I think for me, this is one of those verses that that I want to kind of meditate on and commit to memory a lot like earlier when the captain comes to him and says, How can you be asleep? Right? Like, why are you sleeping? Like, get up, call out to your God, you know. Yeah, maybe he'll take notice on us and we can be spared, right? Like that verse is one of those that kind of rattles around in your head, like get up, wake up.

Applying Prayer In Uncertain Times

SPEAKER_00 8:21

And I think for me, this is another one when it says, you know, kind of a statement, Jonah was in the belly of the fish and he prayed. And you know, I think that leads me to a question that you know, I've been in those situations sometimes when when God has delivered me, He has provided, and it wasn't necessarily what I wanted or what I hoped maybe that He would provide. And so I think that's a challenge to me. Like, is that the time when when I'm in the belly and I don't know what's ahead and this isn't exactly what I had in mind, do I pray? You know, do I do I come to the Lord and and do I pray? And so, you know, I think that's kind of a statement that leads me to to a question of of reflection, and a statement that can be a good command to me that Jonah was in the belly of the fish when he prayed to the Lord his God. And to remember that, because Lord willing, I will never find myself in a belly of a fish, but I do find myself sometimes in situations or circumstances that that are that I don't know what's happening, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:43

Or and that are in some cases so very, very different than you envisioned for yourself, and uncomfortable and and not my idea, and not what I planned, and unexpected in many ways.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

And so when you find yourself there, uh you know, I think it's it is one of those things like Jonah prayed to the Lord as God from the belly of the fish. And will I will I do the same?

unknown 10:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Great, great observation. I I had a similar similar one in a way, but I I I know that that I'm trying to think about what it was like for Jonah in that in that moment, what it must have been like, or over that period of time, days.

No Distraction Time As Prayer

SPEAKER_03 10:23

That what Jonah did though was he used this extended time of what I would call time of no distraction. I mean, he can't do anything else. He can't see anything, he can't, he has nothing, he has he has no games to play, like nothing, nothing. So this extended time of no distraction, he used to pray. And that to me is is remarkable in on a on a number of levels. One, we as modern Western American Christians probably don't find very many moments where we have no distraction. Extremely unlikely that we find three days and three nights with no distractions, but but there are there are times where we have no distraction, and and the Lord is the one who provides those times when they come. And when they do, to be able to just devote it and say, I'm going to devote this to prayer with him. And you know, we we talked about this earlier, and I and I don't everybody's gonna have their own sort of relation relationship to this kind of thing that they can relate to. But for me, I mean you you and I talked about I I had cancer scare a few years ago, and there there is this now annual reminder, but for a while it was more frequent than that, where you have these constant scans where you're in for an MRI of the brain, or you're in for CT of this or C T of that or a PET scan of this, just to see if the if the cancer is still away, like it hasn't hasn't come back, or or or to discover it in the first place in some cases. But but the the thing is when you're in that tube and they've locked

What Did Jonah Pray

SPEAKER_03 12:02

down your arms, your head, your face, and you're in, and you can't you really can't move. It's just I mean, people describe it as being pretty claustrophobic. There's nothing you can do except be there with your thoughts. That's it. And it and it can go on 45 minutes or an hour sometimes. And that I just and part of it I'm sure is what we were going through at the time, but I just devoted that time to prayer and it is a sweet, sweet time with the Lord with no other distractions, nothing else can be in the way. And so that's that's what we did with it. If the Lord give my point is just this if the Lord gives you a time of no distraction, do like Jonah did, devote it to him, devoted to just praying about whatever. And now that that of course led me to a question, which was a couple things related to his praying. One is how long did it take Jonah to decide to use this time for prayer? I mean, I don't I don't know. I mean, I I I think that at some point like the shock of the whole thing would take a little while to adjust to, but it, but it's you know, how long did he did he take before he said, you know what I really ought to be doing here? I'm just gonna pray. Uh we don't know the answer to that. We also don't know exactly, at least at this point, we learn a little bit more about this one later, but at this point, we don't know what he prayed. And so the question is, what did Jonah pray? Did he did he argue with God? Did he repent of his sin? Did he did he ask to be rescued? Did he ask to die? I mean, you in that situation, you might ask for something like that. Did he did he pray for did he pray for the Ninevites? Did he did he pray for the sailors who he had been with? Or did he did he pray for his own heart? You know, I mean just all these things that that he might have prayed. And I'm just I'm just curious. I'm just I just wonder what he prayed when he was in the belly of the fish.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

And I think, you know, I mean, in in this circumstance, a little bit of a spoiler alert, but but the Lord's gonna like the they're going to God's word's gonna tell us what Jonah prayed. But it to work through those questions on the front end, I think can be really helpful to say, you know, what what was it that was on his mind

How Questions Prepare The Heart

SPEAKER_00 14:09

when you reflect back over the whole chapter and see Jonah, that the word of the Lord came to Jonah, that Jonah tried to flee, that the power like he could not flee from the power of the Lord, that the Lord called him back, that the Lord destroyed the boat, you know, like sent a storm that threatened the boat that he was on until they threw him overboard, and then the sea calmed, and then he's in this water and a fish swallows him up. And so as you kind of think through that, you wonder like, what was his his reaction to that? What was his heart posture? What is on his mind as he gets these three days to to think and reflect and and to recall God and and his God and and you know, scripture succinctly, as it often does, puts it that Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish. And and so thinking about that, then as you start to read it, you can start to see see Jonah and see what's what is on his heart.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

It helps with the rest of the study, whatever you're doing. So the so the the rest of the story in this case of Jonah, it it it helps. I can already tell we're just six days into doing this, and if you kept doing it, and again, you don't sometimes that's gonna be one verse, sometimes it might be four or five verses, sometimes it might be a chapter. I mean, it can be a lot of different amounts that you would that you would work through for this, and the the Lord will lead you in that. But if you practice those those statements and questions and you're writing them down, one of the things that I've really come to appreciate about this method is that you can, it really readies your mind and heart for what's coming if you've just stopped to really ask a lot of questions. They some of those answers will come later. Even the ones that don't come later, the fact that you're asking those questions and exploring that and and making those observations and statements just readies your mind and heart for whatever it is the Lord has next in his word in a way that I didn't anticipate really before practicing this.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

And one of the things that I like about it is that

Teaching The Method To Kids

SPEAKER_00 16:23

as you work through a book, you have a list of statements as well that sometimes serve as summaries, sometimes serve as truths. And so they also give you things to test. So sometimes I'll ask a question and I'm like, well, that really can't be true because this was true. And so it also can kind of help you to start testing some of those thoughts that you have to say, well, is that like is that right? And you can kind of go back and and kind of look through your statements and your questions again and say, Well, no, like that's ruled out because of this, you know, or or this is true about God, and so that really can't be what's happening here.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

When you do this, when you use this method, you you said you used it off and on over the years for for a long time. When did you when did you start using this?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Was it were you a kid or what was No, this actually was was a method that was taught in the um making disciples class that that I took when and it was one of the methods that I used when the Lord really started to get a hold of my heart and diving into his word deeper. And and I loved the simplicity of it. It also probably aligns a little bit with how my my mind already works. I like to to summarize and then kind of from that kind of question. It was one that that I used with our children because it's easy.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

You can do it at all ages. Yeah. And your your questions, your statements will be very different.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Sometimes our kids' questions would make me laugh. I was like, wow, I would have never thought to ask that in a million years, but here we are. And and so it always would prompt good good conversations and also then those things like, well, you know, let's test that, or you know, do you think the Bible does answer that question? Could you try to find that answer?

SPEAKER_03 18:21

So as they got older, we could we could do some of those kinds of things too to do you write things like this in the margins of your Bible,

Notebooks, Margins, And Process

SPEAKER_03 18:31

like like statements and questions as you're doing it, or do you put it somewhere do you do it somewhere else? I usually do it. I'm sorry to go on this tangent. I think it's just instructive maybe to do.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

I usually do it in a notebook.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Because my thoughts I know you journal a lot, so So I have I always have a Bible study notebook of of some kind. And so it's my iPad now, and and they very much so will be statements and then sometimes like with a question lined off of it. So be like, if that's true, what does that mean for this, or what does that mean for me, or how do I do that? And so a lot of times it it's it would not be something it would be helpful for somebody else probably to look at.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

It's a little it's your own.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

It's kind of my own.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

And this is a there are a lot of ways, I guess, that somebody could do this, right? I mean, you could. There's no reason why you couldn't write statements and and questions in the in the margins of your Bible if you wanted to. But there are lots of different ways you could do this. Yeah, you have to find what works for you.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

And I would not say that there are no statements or questions in in my Bible.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

Oh, and you write in your Bible a lot. I know that's one of the why I asked the question.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Because sometimes, you know, like you said, right? You had like 30 questions like was he thinking about this? Was he thinking about that? And so those I would write just on kind of notebook paper.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

You just need a little more room.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

A little more room and write on notebook paper and and come back to. But this is one that and I come back to this one a lot. especially if I'm reading something that that sometimes I read it and I'm like I don't even know what that means. You know, like like sometimes I'll read them. And so I'll just start with can I summarize this like this verse into a sentence? You know, can it can I get some nuggets out of it like reading it that will help me kind of understand it. And then can I write some questions to be like I don't know what this means? Like so sometimes my questions are what

Testing Insights With Commentaries

SPEAKER_00 20:28

does this phrase mean? Or why would a lot of times these are in Paul's letters. I'm like is this word modifying this or is it modifying that? You know, which is it? So but what I've learned is that when when you've spent some time kind of thinking through that and asking questions, then you are in a better place to go to outside sources. You're in a better place to go to commentaries. You're in a better place to go to word studies because you've already kind of worked through and prayed through that verse. You've already asked the Lord to to show you some things and to give you some questions. And then it becomes easier for me to read a commentary and be like that seems like that is not the point at all.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

You know that seems off it allows you to test the the commentaries but I and I love using commentaries as we as we prepare sometimes but but they're just they're just written by people they're not they're not inerrant and so just having something like that you can tether to that helps you test some of those things I can see how that'd be helpful.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Or you can get several opinions sometimes on what what that phrase means and and start with that. Some of them don't agree on this and in in context with the other things that I'm studying and reading I I might be more inclined to think this than that. And so it does give you a place where you're kind of ready then to to engage in those where I think it can be really hard to do that if you haven't done the work on the front end.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah. Yeah well I uh I I hope that this has been helpful to to you as you listen and kind of work alongside us on this. And again if you're if you're not if you're not

Closing Reflections And Prayer

SPEAKER_03 22:25

doing that I can't imagine how this podcast is terribly helpful to you. It's only it's really only built to be helpful to you if you're doing it alongside with us. And so I hope that you've been able to do that and hope that this has been a helpful method for you and that that you'll you'll put as Rachel said earlier put this tool in your toolbox and along with the other ones that we'll continue to sort of work along with as well we will start another another method as we come together next tomorrow and that method is is we it's called From their home to our home and the the premise behind it is that it's essentially following the kind of preparation and and work before during and after that you would do related to a mission trip of some kind and then you apply it to Bible study. We'll talk more about what that looks like but I hope that this this statement and two questions has been something that has been a blessing to you. Hope you've been able to find some value in it and more than anything hope that it's helped enable you to hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit through his word that's our that's our prayer for you through this whole thing. Rachel would you like to pray for for those who are listening and those who are part of the class and for us as we as we wrap up this method and kind of put that tool in the toolbox and then and then for what the Lord has ahead for us in the next in the next segment.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Of course most gracious heavenly father we just praise you that you are the God of of all provision value that when we look at your word we see that you are at work we see that you are providing and that you are accomplishing all of your plans and purposes

Next Method Preview

SPEAKER_00 24:05

and Father we praise you for that we praise you that we serve a God who is able to command all of the earth to accomplish his will and Father we just want to just want to revel in in the glory of who you are and your power and your might and your incredible love. Father I pray that that for us that we will that we will call out to you that Father even when we're in the belly of the fish that we will call to the Lord our God that we will spend time putting our our praises before you that we will spend time thanking you for what you have done that we will spend time praying for the things that are going on in the world around us and and I pray that you'll give us the grace to do that even when our circumstances are not what we thought that they would be but that our eyes would be on you. And Father I pray just for our class as we are learning this method that you will just continue to use it. Father so that we do see you and we see wonderful things in your word that we can better know your character better know your nature better know your will and your plans for the world and for your people and for us and that we will see the heart of God. And so we just ask you to to help us in that because you are the only one who can open the eyes of our heart and Father I pray that that as we move through this study that you'll just continue to to help us to to find ways to to dig deeper into to the beauty of of the living word and so we ask that in Jesus' name amen.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

Amen I've enjoyed learning this new method I hope you have alongside us as well and we're looking forward to having you join us tomorrow there's no homework for tomorrow no homework we're going to start with the overview of that next method which is from their home to our home so uh hang with us I hope you'll be back tomorrow and we'll start that second method