The story of Jonah has typified to many the experience of mortals when evil seems to beset them on every side, and there is no apparent means of deliverance. The narrative records (Jonah 2:5), "The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head." Yet there must have come to Jonah in some measure the conviction that his seemingly hopeless experience was not so much an external condition from which he needed deliverance as an erroneous thought condition which needed correction. For his memorable prayer wholeheartedly acknowledged God and His power to deliver (Jonah 2:7–9): "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord."
It is only material sense that faints—becomes downcast. At the very moment it aggressively argues defeat, we, like Jonah, can remember God's power and lift our prayers to Him by whom they are always heard. We too can give up the false beliefs of defeat, discouragement, hopelessness, and so on, sacrifice the belief that these qualities are real. We can vision the present unimpaired safety and perfection of God's spiritual idea, which error cannot obscure, and refuse to forsake our "own mercy" by not observing or acquiescing in its false arguments. Having taken our stand determinedly, we shall have the evidence that "salvation is of the Lord." We can see and accept, not what error says cannot be done, but what God says He has already done, and what man as His reflection is expressing now. Nothing can hinder our healing ourselves of accepting discouraging adverse reports.
We have but to listen to God's angel messages, revealing ever-present spiritual facts. "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard," sang the Psalmist (Ps. 19:3). There is no time or place where His voice, the utterance of Love that destroys fear, and of Truth that eliminates falsity, is not heard. In every human situation the Christ, Truth, is present with its redeeming message. The spiritual fact or true report about home, body, business, or supply is eternally at hand to accept.
