When You Feel Hopeless, Start With Prayer By Rick Warren
“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God.” Jonah 2:1 (NIV)
Have you ever felt swallowed up by life? Maybe you were surrounded by depression, conflict, worry, or guilt—and you felt hopeless.
I hope you’re not feeling that way right now, but at some point you will be. You might lose a loved one, your job, or your health.
When you’re faced with a hopeless situation, think about what Jonah did.
After Jonah had run from God’s mission for his life, God prepared a great fish to swallow him up. As he sat in that great fish, Jonah looked up to God.
In fact, the entire second chapter of the book of Jonah is a record of Jonah praying while he sinks into the ocean and gets swallowed by a giant fish. It’s a lesson to us that when we’re feeling overwhelmed, we need to look up to God in prayer.
From the very first verse of the chapter, you see Jonah turning to God: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God” (Jonah 2:1 NIV).
Some problems in life will never go away unless we learn to look to God in prayer.
In Mark 9, some of Jesus’ followers had been trying to drive a demon out of someone, but they couldn’t. They asked Jesus why.
Jesus responded: “This kind can come out only by prayer” (Mark 9:29 NIV).
Some problems are so deeply rooted that only persistent prayer will solve them. It’s not about just a one-time prayer. If you only care about something enough to pray about it once, you don’t really care about it. If you truly want to see something happen in your life, you will pray about it over and over.
God wants to see whether you care about it enough to keep praying until he answers. He's more interested in building your faith than he is in immediately answering every little prayer.
For more Daily Hope with Rick Warren, please visit pastorrick.com!
Your Gift Brings Hope to the World
Transform your prayer life with God’s Word!
True breakthrough from the struggles of life begins with prayer—and there is no better place to start cultivating a powerful prayer life than the Bible.
Discover the biblical wisdom you need to transform the way you pray when you dive into this special collection of verses from God’s Word. You’ll be inspired and encouraged by Scripture as you learn to trust in his promises.
Drawing key verses from Pastor Rick’s "40 Days of Prayer" teaching series, this set of 52 beautifully designed cards will help you memorize God’s Word so you can access it when you need it most—and it’s our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience the transformative power of prayer through Daily Hope!
Thank you for helping share the hope of Jesus Christ. May you enjoy a time of breakthrough as you fill your heart and mind with the truth of Scripture.
*The USA IRS code permits you to deduct the amount of your financial gift to Daily Hope that exceeds the fair market value of “current offer” materials you received from Daily Hope.
