Real Thanksgiving

I have always been fascinated by the bible story of Jonah. It seems like this is mainly a story that gets way watered down and told to young kids in church, but the truth is, it is a very remarkable and powerful account of hitting bottom and of salvation. I love the way this prayer is written just as much as the prayer itself. Whether it was meant as a metaphor or really happened matters not to me because the prayer is real. The thanksgiving is real.

Like a true nerd, I have highlighted my favorite lines :) Happy Thanksgiving.

Jonah's Prayer of Thanksgiving for Deliverance

Source: Jonah 2 (NKJV)

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the fish's belly

And he said:

I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction,

And He answered me.

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

And you heard my voice.

For You cast me into the deep,

Into the heart of the seas,

And the floods surrounded me;

All Your billows and Your waves passed over me.

Then I said, I have been cast out of Your sight;

Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.
The waters encompassed me, even to my soul;

The deep closed around me;

Weeds were wrapped around my head.

I went down to the moorings of the mountains;

The earth with its bars closed behind me forever;

Yet You brought up my life from the pit,

O LORD, my God.

When my soul fainted within me,

I remembered the Lord;

And my prayer went up to You,

Into Your holy temple.

Those who regard worthless idols

Forsake their own Mercy.

But I will sacrifice to You

With the voice of thanksgiving;

I will pay what I have vowed.

Salvation is of the Lord.

So the Lord spoke to the fish,

and it vomited out Jonah onto dry land.