“What do you mean, you sleeper?
Arise, call out to your god!
Perhaps the god will give a thought to us,
that we may not perish.”
Jonah
1:6 (ESV)
I had written under it this quote:
The stark reality:
God's people are the link
between God's mercy and the people who need it.
Brad
Henderson
These notations made me think. We as the church have a great
responsibility to call out God to extend His mercy to those around us. Surely we
pray. But this kind of calling out, what the captain of the ship asked of
Jonah, is something that means to verbally do so with passion and emotions. It
is not passive or wimpy but loud!
This is the prayer that comes from the heart's depth for rescue,
for salvation, when we are at the end of our rope, as were the sailors on the
ship that was threatening to break up due to the tempest. (Jonah 1:4)
And this is the prayer of the intercessor who stands in the
gap, who is the link between those who need rescuing and God's desire to rescue
them.
"Arise." This is what the captain told Jonah to do.
This is also the command that God twice gave to Jonah.
Three times the word "arise" is seen in the book
of Jonah—1:2, 1:6, and 3:2. Each time the same Hebrew word was used. It is the
word "quwm" and it means to rise, arise, stand, rise up or stand up.
But it also means to fulfill, perform, carry out, even establish. It is a word
that is more than just getting up to your feet. It has the sense of then moving
those feet to go forth and do what needs to be done.
It is time for us to arise, to go forth and do what needs to
be done. It is time for God's people, the church, to stand up before Him and
ask the Lord to consider those around us, to cry out to Him for their salvation.
Praying moms—as we arise and cry out for our children, our
prayers stand in the gap between them and the Lord's mercy. Let us arise!
ARISE, CRY OUT IN THE NIGHT,
AS THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT BEGIN;
POUR OUT YOUR HEART LIKE WATER
IN THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD.
LIFT UP YOUR HANDS TO HIM
FOR THE LIVES OF YOUR CHILDREN,
WHO FAINT FROM HUNGER
AT THE HEAD OF EVERY STREET.
Lamentations 2:19 NV
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