“When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.” (Jon 2:7 AV)
What a great verse. It matters not that Jonah was in the belly of the whale. This verse is true regardless of the cause of our fainting. There are a few ideas which the Holy Spirit has given me. First, it is not out of the ordinary for the saint to feel faint of spirit amid very difficult circumstances. Jonah’s was self-inflicted. He was called to go to the city of Nineveh (modern-day Iran) and preach the word of God to them. God was fixing to destroy them because of their wickedness. Jonah knew God was a gracious God and that if there was any hope for them, the LORD would repent of the judgment He was contemplating bringing. Nineveh was a cruel kingdom, as they still are, and regularly harassed, murdered, and raped, the Jews abiding on the eastern border of their nation. Jonah had no love loss for them. So, he ran from God. He found himself in the belly of a whale which had to be utterly horrible. The bends would be bad enough. Because of his choice to run from God, he was faint of heart. Yet, God heard him. We don’t have to be in disobedience to be faint of heart. Persecution, normal life, and trials of faith can find us equally despaired. It is normal to be faint of heart. Give yourself a break. But secondly, and equally important, is that when we pray, God hears us. He hears the prayers of the faint of heart no matter the cause.
My wife had a very complex and serious surgery a bit over a year ago. She was diagnosed with stage IV NET cancer. Her primary tumor was on her small intestine. Her cancer had metastasized to her liver, lymph nodes, and near her uterus. Her surgery was around five or so hours. They removed the primary tumor on her intestine, twenty percent of her liver, and the lymph nodes in that area. Her scar runs from the middle of her chest to her belly button. The surgeon requested she be admitted to the Center for Advanced Care for her recovery. This is where patients stayed, who needed more attention than an ICU could provide. She was in the hospital for about a week and recovery was slow. I paced those halls and put on several miles as she lay there in her bed, slowly getting back on her feet. As I walked the halls of her floor, I noticed the design of the floor was not a typical layout of other units. Usually, there is a nurses’ station in the center of the unit. Even in nursing homes, it is more typical to have a central nurses station. But not on the thirteenth floor of the Center for Advanced Care. The nurse's stations were actually set up three or four to a wing. It was a cut-out part of the hall that contained a desk, communications, and a computer. The nurse’s tools were extremely portable. Even though the patient’s bed had a call button, there wasn’t a need for it. The attending nurse could hear her patients from where she or he sat. The nurse’s ear was attuned to her patients no matter how faint a cry was made.
A God who is in all places and knows all things surely can hear the faintest of cries from His distressed children. The only thing stopping us from realizing this is a heart of faith. As a mother who can no longer allow her child to suffer, God cannot allow us to be faint of heart without grave concern for our situation. Jonah was faint-hearted. It was self-inflicted. He deserved what he was getting. God sent it Himself. But that didn’t stop God from hearing the cries of someone empty of all strength. God hears the faint-hearted. Don’t beat yourself up for being so. You and I are not God. We are not supermen. We have our limits. Life has a way of draining us from all strength. You are human. Therefore, allow yourself the reality of being faint-hearted. But don’t remain that way. Believe that God hears you because He does. Even if our cries are as soft as a whimper, God hears our cries. Place your trust in Him and allow Him to strengthen your heart. He stands at the ready, waiting for your prayer to enter His temple.
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