Can You Spare A Prayer?

“But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.  So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the sip into the sea to lighten it for them.  But Jonah had gone down below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. 

So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping?  Get up, call on your god.  Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Jonah 1:3-6

Jonah was running away from God.  The captain and the crew did not know this.  They believed that there were many different gods and that in to get things done; they needed to appeal to the right god.  Since it was still storming they knew that they had not appealed to the right god. 

Jonah apparently was the only man on board who was not yelling to a god, and therefore, the captain thought perhaps that Jonah’s God was the right God.

In the end, Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish.  But the other story is that “Then those men feared the Lord greatly….”

When we encounter people who have huge problems, our first instinct may be to run away from them.  A more merciful course of action is to say:  I don't know what you should do, but I will pray with you.  Prayer calms and comforts, and heals the brokenhearted.  Prayer changes things and people like the sailors who were with Jonah. 

Spare a prayer for someone in need.  It may be all it takes to bring a soul to Jesus.