Title: When the Soul Gets Tired
Kim when the soul is tired
“When my soul was weary within me, I remembered the LORD; my prayer came to you, and to your temple” (Jon 2:7).
I. Background of the text
The text records the events that happened after the prophet Jonah refused to go to Nineveh to warn of God's judgment and boarded a ship going to Tarshish. Nineveh was the capital of the great nation of Assyria, and God went there and the prophet Jonah cried out for the impending wrath of God, calling them to repent and return to God. But today this prophet is in a fish. He disobeyed God's command and boarded a boat bound for Tarshish, and encountered a storm. When a lot was cast for who was responsible for this storm, Jonah, who was sleeping in the bottom of the boat, was struck, and he was thrown into the sea by men. A big fish swallowed him, and he spent three days and three nights in the fish.
II. when the soul is weary
As I spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, as if neither dead nor alive, I had a new idea of God's disposition and existence. The Prophet says: “When my soul was weary within me, I thought of the Lord” To say that you are tired means that your heart wants to do it, but your body does not move well and your enthusiasm for whatever you do is gone. The same is true of the fatigue of the soul. It is the life of the body that moves our body. The soul moves with the spiritual life, which is the life of God. When God's life is supplied to us through God's Word and Holy Spirit, the soul overcomes fatigue and performs its proper functions and operations.
What is the proper function and operation of the soul? When God gives strength to the soul, the functions of the soul move actively. So, when we hear the word of God, our intellect is actively working and we try to understand the word of God. Also, when the life of the soul overflows, the will is renewed, and the desire to live for God, to become a better believer, and to obey God arises. However, when these spiritual strengths and spiritual graces disappear, the soul becomes very tired. It's annoying because I don't have energy. I never pray when my soul is tired. I have no strength to pray.
A. Casting out of the sight of God
Even the prophet Jonah felt such a tired soul. Verse 4 of the Bible says, “I said, I have been cast out of your sight. But I will look to your temple again.” Casting out of the sight of God brought weariness to the soul. The greatest blessing God can give to His children is to let them live before Him face to face. The greatest wealth on our path in life is communing with God and living in His presence.
Even when the storm of trials comes, if I kneel and pray, He will listen to my prayers and show me the way, so I am not afraid. When we worship every week, God shows us the way to go, and when we read the Bible, God tells us which way we should walk in a dark world. This is the happiness of those who live in the presence of God. A prophet is a person who must live in the presence of such a God. But Jonah was cast out of the sight of God through disobedience.
B. Surrounded by the depths
Second, his soul was weary when he was surrounded by the depths. Commenting on Psalm 130, the great Puritan John Owen explains the depths in two ways. The first is the depth of the environment, and the second is the depth of the soul. Depth is deep water with no bottom and no end. When you go away from God in your life, God puts you in the depths of your environment first. There are two types of difficulties we face in life. There are general difficulties, and there is the depth of the God-given environment. Common difficulties can be overcome with our talents, resources, and wisdom, but the depth of the environment God has placed in order to bring us to our senses is not a tribulation that we can overcome with our remnants of talent. In the depths of this environment, what God wants is to make him realize what a great misfortune it is to have left God's presence. Also, a depth that is deeper than the depth of the environment falls on him, which is the depth of the soul.
III. When you think of Jehovah
A. Leave the weary soul behind
Jonah thought of Jehovah in a situation that was neither living nor dead. Why did God make him suffer for three days and three nights and switch between life and death? It is evidence that God has left his weary soul behind. The reason is to make you realize how happy it is to live in the presence of God. So when you face trials and tribulations and are in these circumstances and the depths of your soul, this is the time when God calls you. ‘Repent and return.’
B. The God Who Makes Prayer
It was only in the midst of encountering trials and tribulations that he made him realize that the fact that his soul had turned away from God was the cause of his falling into all these depths. And to pray before God. A prayer of one earnest heart that comes from the heart has more power than ten thousand words of prayer. That is why the prophet Jonah realized through the pulpit while suffering endless suffering in the fish. He was deeply aware of his disobedience and sin, and repented before God. When he clings to God, deeply aware of the fact that he was cast out of God's presence in the presence of God in the environment and in the depths of his soul, and clinging to God, bearing in mind that there is no one who can save himself from all these trials except God. becomes Only then will personal prayer come out.
IV. conclusion
When God withdraws his grace, we depart from the sight of the Lord, and our souls are exhausted. When God has put you in the depths of your mind, don't try to oppose the power of God by your own strength and the wisdom of God in your own wiles. A greater ordeal is coming. Unbearable ruin will visit you. The essence of faith is the fear of God. and love for God. I hope that the saints who will hear the voice of God calling even to be beaten, repent and return to the presence of the Lord. 2011-07-03