Perhaps you know the story of Jonah. Did you know it’s a story about restoring gratitude? God wanted Jonah to go to the Ninevites and extend a chance for them to repent and receive God’s mercy. But, Jonah didn’t want to do this. He didn’t think that the Ninevites deserved that chance. So, he ran away from God.
But, God knew how to get Jonah’s attention. He sent a storm upon the sea and when the storm threatened the lives of those he sailed with, Jonah had the sailors throw him into the churning sea. “Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”(Jonah 1:17)
Imagine what Jonah must have gone through. He is tossed into a stormy sea that should have taken his life, but God spares him in a mysterious way. He isolates him in a protective cocoon of darkness and waits for Jonah to have a change of heart.
How easy it can be to forget how merciful God has been to us. When we lose sight of that, however, we can fall into the same circumstance of wanting others to have to pay for their actions and offences. Our hearts can harden against others and we can fail to see them through the eyes of forgiveness and compassion. Without gratitude, we can not fully extend God’s love and compassion to others.
Sometimes the darkness of our circumstances can force us to self examine and realize our dependence on God. When we focus our eyes on the God that sits on His throne of righteousness, we can remember that we owe all we are and all we have to the mercies of a God who longs to rescue us from ourselves.
“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. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." (2:1)
Jonah came to the end of himself, remembered God’s mercy, and found gratitude.
“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 for ever: 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 thine 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." (2:5-9)
When gratitude filled Jonah’s heart, he was then willing to do what God had asked.
And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.”
Jonah 2:1-10
Do you want to be useful and effective to do the work of the Lord? Then you must maintain gratitude for what He has done for you. What He has done for you He wants to do for others.
