Posted on 12/12/2003 6:20:00 AM PST by stainlessbanner
Gratitude in Darkness
"But I will sacrifice to Thee with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord. " Jonah 2:9
When Jonah fled from the will of God, the Lord intercepted him with a storm resulting in the sailors throwing him overboard. God captured Jonah in a fish and returned him to his mission. Jonah gave thanks to God for deliverance while still in the belly of the fish, not after the fish delivered him safely to land. His prayer anticipated God delivering him from the fish just as the fish had delivered him from drowning.
When God thrusts you into darkness, you are most apt to despair, concluding that He has abandoned you. Darkness and despair often precede deliverance. The time to express gratitude to God is when in the darkness, not after deliverance.
God leads in your life by steps, each step assuring you that He has firm control over your life and will take you through the next step as well. When He leads you into the "valley of the shadow of death," you can know that He will again lead you out. By this means He builds trust, faith, and confidence. Jonah's deliverance into the mouth of the fish gave assurance that God would also deliver him from the mouth of the fish. But it takes the eye of faith to see this, a faith expressed in gratitude.
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