Day 54 – Thanksgiving in the Belly of Hell!

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land’. Jonah 2:9-10

You would remember from yesterday’s devotionals that ‘Jonah looked again’ unto the Lord in prayer.

He described his situation as one being in hell! Yet he could summon courage and hope to cry unto God, and he obtained mercy and found grace. I noticed however in verse 9 that his calamitous situation was not finally turned around until he turned the gear of his prayers to thanksgiving!

When your thanksgiving and praises goes up, heaven comes down to your situation. Bible says, the Lord inhabits the praise of His people, and anywhere the Lord inhabits experiences fullness of joy. You might have been praying and praying in hope, without any visible positive change in your situation; you now need to turn the gear to thanksgiving and praise unto God.

Remember Paul and Silas. They prayed, yes, but they sang praises too. They were so bold at it that in spite of their situation in the prison, they kept praising God aloud such that all their prison colleagues heard them! Their faith was loud and clear through their praises! The heavens showed up, and everyone in the prison partook of the power of deliverance. If you can dare to praise God in your ‘belly of hell’, the word of the Lord will come forth and the fish will vomit you – from the depth of the seas to your dry land, in Jesus name. Amen.