Jonah 2:2

John 2:2

I cried by reason of mine affliction.

Troubles and deliverance

I. The fact of trouble. Jonah is at one with all men in a common experience of trouble. No child of God is born to a heritage of unmitigated grief. Some compensating mercy is sure to throw its mellow light over the angriest storm. Some specimens of trouble. So many hampered lives; so many obstacles to goodness; so many and so powerful temptations; so many apparent contradictions to the truth of an infinite goodness. Jonah’s trouble was his being thrust off into a conscious distance from God.

II. Deliverance from trouble. The steps toward such deliverance are stated in Our Scripture.

1. Jonah remembered God. Submissive memory of God is the first step.

2. Prayer is the next step.

3. A thankful trust is the next. (Wayland Hoyt, D. D.)