When I read Jonah’s prayer in Chapter 2, I am inclined to think that it’s such a great prayer.
It speaks about God hearing the cry of his children, and I even found it sounded like some of the Psalms. But the more you look at it, the more you must question its sincerity.

The first chapter of Jonah clearly shows us that Jonah was disobedient to God. He thought he could run from God. How does a man whose profession is a prophet of God not know he cannot run from God? But when you read the prayer of Jonah from the belly of the fish, he says things that sound true. Was it a wonderful prayer that moved God onto mercy?

Was Jonah trying to appease God and appeal to that exact merciful nature that he was against? In the end, Jonah tells God he knew that he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And Jonah was mad that God had mercy upon the people of Nineveh. But it’s that same merciful God that had mercy on Jonah. After Jonah was in real calamity in the belly of a fish he prayed but once he came out and things didn’t go his was he was quick to walk out on God and be angry about it. So, was the prayer sincere?

I urge you to read it yourself, think about it for some time, and see if Jonah is sincere and genuinely repentant. Do we do this sometimes? When we are pushed into a place of no hope, is it only then that we turn to God for help. And otherwise, we want to do our own thing, and we do not want to be obedient to God?

Pray, Read and Think on it and repeat …this is the mediation of scripture.