Live Free with Josh Howerton - Prayers from the Depths | Ep. 188 | Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

What do your prayers sound like when you feel like you are in the depths? Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the fish because he knew that salvation belonged only to the Lord. Listen in today to learn how to write your own prayer thanking God for how He has rescued you. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, thanks for tuning in to The Daily Drive. My name is Bro, and we have been doing some binge watching of a reality series. It involves this guy named Jonah as the principal character, and we've already seen him board a boat and try to run from God, and God runs after him. He does that with all of us.

Well, Jonah eventually gets thrown into the sea, and as he is drowning, God supernaturally rescues him. We read yesterday that Jonah was inside the fish for three days. the common Jewish measurement of time means part of one day, a full day, and then a part of another day. But while he is there, he has some time to think and pray. And he writes this really cool song of gratitude. It's kind of what I would call a rescue psalm. It says this in Jonah chapter 2. This is Jonah writing.

I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me. You threw me into the ocean depths, and as I sank to the heart, of the sea. The mighty waters engulfed me. I was buried beneath your wild and stormy waves. I sank beneath the waves and the waters closed over me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head. I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth whose gates locked shut forever. But you, O Lord, my God, you snatched me from the jaws of death. My salvation comes from the Lord alone. Man, how many of us could write something like that from our own life experience?

So I got a homework assignment for you today, and I know all of you students are not excited about that, but I want to invite you to sit down sometime this week and just write one of these. Grab a Bible or get a Bible app and use Jonah 2 as a backdrop and just write your personal rescue psalm of gratitude. I think it'll be a great exercise for you to do. I think it'll raise your level of gratitude. I asked several friends to go ahead and do that and they gave me permission to read theirs. They just sat down with the Bible that used the format that Jonah wrote in Jonah too, and they just wrote with incredible vulnerability and honesty. These are from the heart and so well thought out. I mean, they blew me away. These are men and women who have been rescued

from various things. For instance, a guy who was rescued from a longtime battle with drug abuse. He writes, as I sit in the living room in a cloud of smoke, I'm thinking, I'm drowning. I'm drowning. I thought it's just pot, but in reality I was sinking deeper and deeper into Satan's hands. But now I know God was by my side. And when I reached up, he reached down and pulled me out of the cloud. When my head was full of smoke, I couldn't see you, Lord. But now that my head is clear, I look back and see where you held my hand through the rough times. I will praise you daily for making my life worth living. I will say salvation comes from the Lord. Isn't that good? From a girl who was rescued from an eating disorder. She writes,

Barred beneath my pit of perfection. The scale, the mirror, the failure, the pressure. My worth was my weight. To be more was to be less. I was always full, always empty, always never enough, until my salvation came from the Lord. For I have been rescued by God. Without charge, he brought me up from the pit. My father, my rock, my reclaimer of years, He has restored the weight of my worth. To be less makes him more. He is always full, never empty, and always more than enough. A buddy of mine who was dealing with all kinds of stuff.

He honestly wrote this. For years I ran as hard and fast as I could from you, God. My desires revolved around material items, BMWs, Mercedes, Porsche, anything that gave me the appearance of success to those around me. I, like Jonah, was drowning. drowning in debt, chasing something I couldn't get. No matter what I achieved, and it was never enough. I felt lonely, empty, unfulfilled, nothing seemed to satisfy me.

I kept chasing the dollars and hating myself. I believe you, oh God, allowed me to spiral out of control. You let me sink to the bottom until the light was turning to dark, and then. You put people in my life that loved God and showed me how to love you. It was like the sun was coming out. It was like swimming from the dark abyss to the sunlight of the surface. You had pulled me up from the grave alive just like Jonah. My salvation belongs to God.

So what was your near-drawning experience? What's your fish story? Most everybody's got one. How did God rescue you? Now, maybe it wasn't a fish that came along, but God did provide a friend, or someone who got you to go to a recovery meeting or invited you to join their group. Or you received a text or a phone. call out of the blue or somebody gave you a link to a podcast or they handed you a book or one day

your kid said something it was kind of a wake-up call and it started your rescue or maybe it was a mission trip or a service project or a worship experience or maybe you were sitting in church and you felt like you were the only one there and God reached down and he rescued you so your homework assignment is this if you're grateful take some time and write a rescue psalm this week it's a great way to get your heart in a place where you can celebrate the amazing grace of God. Get to work on that, and I'll see you back tomorrow for episode three. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you,

would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out. For more information about all digital ministries of LakePoint, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.combe.com slash daily drive.