Our Available Father In Heaven

On this mid-week day of a week which began with celebrating fathers, I have been encouraging and urging you with attributes of God, our Heavenly Father. So far, we have been brief, but no less truthful and sincere about these attributes of our Father.

He Is Approachable.

He is Identifiable.

We, His children, declare this fact by living the reality that we can go to God at any time. Even when you are not approachable, He is, our identifiable God.

Today, using the same text for the week, we look at another attribute of God, as viewed in Jonah’s prayer. 

He prayed to the LORD, ‘O LORD’, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I know that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Jonah 4: 2

God is Available - Is this not what I said when I was still at home?

God is Omnipresent. All I heard here, was that God is available to you in prayer, at home and abroad. I know that you know this, but having it brought to you in this way, makes you take a step or two back, stop and look at yourselves in deep, spiritually revealing light. This is truly deep and such an eye-opener, only God, through His present Spirit, can work this in us.

Is this not what I said when I was still at home? These words of Jonah tell us three things about Jonah, God and prayer. Jonah and his God talked together at home. Jonah spoke some specific words to God while he was at home. Jonah was at home with God, to talk with Him at home, in the place where he lived. I call this, prayer at home.

Where is Jonah at this present moment? He is certainly not at home. He is someplace else, yet in this other place, which is not called home, Jonah is able to talk with God as if he were home. Just to refresh the memories of some, Jonah’s away from home place is a most unusual place, nonetheless, it is a special place provided and prepared by God for His servant-preacher. Jonah 1: 17 tells us this. Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.  Note with curious eye, that the KJV says that God prepared a huge fish. Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

We are listening to Jonah in his away-from-home place. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. Jonah 2: 1. What do we have written into our hearts and minds? Indeed, there is learning here also. God is available in prayer, even when we are away from home. Home may be peace and quiet and away from home may be chaos and bedlam. Know, even in your times of no-peace and no-quiet, God is available to you.

The prayer-words you speak to God, when you are in the comfort and security of home, are the same words you can speak to God in your away place. Why is this so? It is the case because God never changes with place. The God who is available to hear your home-spoken words, is the same God who is available to hear those same home-spoken words, in a different environment.     

Whether you are home or abroad with God, our Father, do you declare and display this attribute about Him? He is available!

Be true to yourself, with Him, when you talk with Him.