JONAH 2:3-8, 10 (2025)

JONAH 2:3-8, 10

3 Out of my distress I cried to the Lord and he answered me, from the belly of Sheol I cried out; you heard my voice!
4 For you threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods closed round me. All your waves and billows passed over me;
5 then I thought, 'I am banished from your sight; how shall I ever see your holy Temple again?'
6 The waters round me rose to my neck, the deep was closing round me, seaweed twining round my head.
7 To the roots of the mountains, I sank into the underworld, and its bars closed round me for ever. But you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God!
8 When my soul was growing ever weaker, Lord, I remembered you, and my prayer reached you in your holy Temple.
10 but I shall sacrifice to you with songs of praise. The vow I have made I shall fulfil! Salvation comes from the Lord!

---- mine,

I heard your cry and I hastened to answer you. In your distress, you called My Name, and My heart, moved with tender compassion, hastened to you and rescued you from the pit. For a long while, you wandered far from Me, you shut your eyes willfully so you could not see Me, and you shut your ears deliberately so you could not hear My voice wooing you, cajoling you, stooping low over you, and pleading with you to stop the headlong path to destruction. The further you departed from Me, the more blind you became, and you comforted yourself with lies. You allowed yourself to be deceived, you convinced yourself that lies were truth, but the more you deceived yourself, the darker your life became, and the shackles to which you were bound grew ever tighter. But I was always present for the darkness is never too dark for Me, and I was at hand waiting for the instant when you, in your brokenness, in your grief, and your agony of soul, became aware of who you are - a daughter of the Most High God. And the love of God and the power of God and the mercy of God opened and came down on you in torrents, and broke the chains with which you had bound yourself for so long. I came to you and I touched you. I wrapped you in My love and surrounded you within and without with the glory of My Presence. You came out of the pit of hell and, filled with grace, walked into newness of life. Be not afraid, ---- my own, I AM the God who came to seek and save the lost, and there is no soul so lost that I cannot and will not seek, save, and restore. Never forget that you are seald in My Blood and in My Holy Spirit - You are Mine now and forever.