Why would you apply the teachings of the Bible to your life?
To demonstrate your desire and submission to conform to God’s truth. Personal application of biblical principles occurs after you have studied the Bible and decided to order your life– your thoughts, attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors– in accordance with the truth you discover in the Bible. What if you decided beforehand that you would agree with God and apply His truth? This commitment would change your life forever because your knowledge of God and His truth found in the Bible would slowly become a part of your life. Applying the teachings of the Bible to your life requires that you are specific in how you respond to God and God’s truth.
You may want to review the blog entitled Empowering Followers of Jesus to Study the Old Testament | Part 1: Observation of Jonah 2:1-10 to discover how to study the Bible for yourself BEFORE you try to apply the teachings of the Bible. For example, studying the Old Testament, specifically the book of Jonah is a historical-cultural learning experience, including discovering the people of the book, the role of a prophet, the geographic locations, the historical period, and at least one cultural worldview (i.e., polytheism vs. monotheism). By studying the Bible, you learn what the Bible says prior to applying its teachings to your life.
Why would you put forth the effort to study the Bible for yourself?
You engage in personal Bible study for the purpose of knowing God. When studying the Bible, you show God how much you love Him and want to know Him. You demonstrate you make time for Him and put forth energy and effort to grow your relationship with God. When you take the next step to apply God’s truth found in the Bible to your life, you demonstrate you want God to transform you into the person He created you to be, but also that you want to live the life God intended for you.
Take a moment to listen or read Jonah 1:1-17.
Did you notice the references to prayer? God heard the cry from Nineveh. The sailors asked their pagan gods to cause the storm to stop. The captain told Jonah to pray to His God. The sailors pray to the God of Jonah and ask for mercy because they are going to throw Jonah overboard; this act would be considered murderous to throw someone into a raging sea. These sailors pray for God to separate Jonah’s disobedience from them, so they do not die at sea. If you stop with only listening or reading Jonah 1, you could have an inaccurate view of prayer.
Inaccurate View of Prayer
From Jonah 1, you could begin to believe that prayer is impersonal, used for crisis situations, and a last resort after exhausting your own abilities. For example, the sailors’ prayer is calling out to any god that will listen – not the one true God of the Bible. God, in the sailor’s view, was an unknown god who is powerful, distant, angry, and wrathful. Therefore, prayer is an action the sailors use after they tried to save themselves by throwing out cargo, rowing harder, etc. When their abilities did not solve the problem, then prayer was employed as the life-threatening crisis escalated. When the storm persists, the sailors learn there is a God who speaks, listens, and knows Jonah personally. Jonah’s view of prayer is intimate and personal communication with the one, true God who created everything.
Prayer is personal, intimate communication with God.
Prayer is communication to an all-powerful God who can and does calm the storm. This all-knowing God who is intimately acquainted with the sea, the storm, the sailors’ desperation, and Jonah’s disobedience is present, listening, and responding to their prayers. God calms the storm, and the sailors respond in reverence and praise to the one, true God.
God is not distant but is active in saving those who call out to Him in times of trouble (Jonah 2:9b).
God doesn’t just save Jonah, but all the sailors, and is the same God who has been saving people from their distress throughout history. Read Psalm 107 and notice how many times the writer repeats, “Lord help!” they cried in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
After God rescues Jonah, he is grateful and expresses genuine thanksgiving for God’s deliverance. However, Jonah expresses his piety – he is not like the sailors, idol worshipers (Jonah 2:8). A place that ought to have been a place of death (i.e., ship in a raging see, depths of the waters, belly of a whale/fish) became a place of deliverance.
Jesus mentions Jonah in Matthew 12:39-41 as a sign to the people of that day. Jonah’s three days and nights in the belly of a whale/fish are a sign of God’s deliverance through Jesus’ three days in the grave. The crucifixion of Jesus was a place of death, but Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection is the deliverance for mankind to receive forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God.
Jonah declares that salvation comes from God (Jonah 2:9b). Jonah’s deliverance was unexpected because of his disobedience, not deserved or earned, but welcomed with thanksgiving and praise. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection are God’s unexpected way of bringing about deliverance for all mankind, but are a gift, not deserved or earned, but rather an outpowering of God’s love, compassion, grace, and mercy.
Biblical Context and Repeated Concepts
Application becomes clearer as you understand more about the context of the book of the Bible and how various concepts are repeated in other chapters. For example, in Jonah 2, prayer includes the concept of “in your holy temple” (Jonah 2:7). Most likely, Jonah is not describing God in a singular location, but rather is acknowledging God can be worshiped anywhere because prayer is communicating with God but also incorporates communing with God to worship Him. Jonah fled from the presence of God on his way to Tarshish and in the belly of the whale/fish Jonah senses the presence of God through prayer, praise, thanksgiving, and making promises.
Prayer is not just telling God what you will do.
Jonah makes two promises in his prayer to the Lord (Jonah 2:9). First, Jonah is willing to offer thanksgiving and sacrifice to God, meaning a public celebration declaring God’s deliverance of Jonah. Second, Jonah is willing to keep his vows by returning to his prophetic role; essentially “make good” or “make complete” his responsibility that God gave him to share God’s message with the people of Nineveh. This concept of worship as it relates to prayer, deliverance, and praise appears throughout the book of Psalms (reference Psalm 5:7, 13:5, 31:14, 55:16, 59:16, 109:4, and ten times in Psalm 119).
The more you study the Bible for yourself, you realize God’s truth is for all generations. The timeless biblical principles are transferrable and applicable for your life personally. For instance, here are four statements of God’s truth found in Jonah 2.
- In times of distress and discomfort, you can pray to God for help knowing He hears you and responds. (See Jonah 2:1, 2, and 7).
- Despite your disobedience to God, there is hope of deliverance/rescue for you when you pray to God and put your trust in God. (See Jonah 2:4-6).
- God is the source of salvation for those who call on His name. (See Jonah 2:6-10).
- When God delivers you from the life circumstances created by your disobedience to Him, you should express praise, thanksgiving, and gratitude to God. (See Jonah 2:9).
By listing the specific Bible reference with each statement, you emphasize that the timeless biblical principle is directly from the Bible and represents God’s truth, not something you came up with yourself.
Application of God’s truth is the goal of your Bible study.
Discovering the timeless biblical principles is just the first step in the process of studying the Bible, while application makes God’s truth a part of your life. To apply a biblical principle to your life, you can identify measurable application goals. Possible measurable application goals to APPLY biblical principles from Jonah 2 could be:
Timeless Biblical Principle:
In times of distress and discomfort, you can pray to God for help knowing He hears you and responds. (See Jonah 2:1, 2, and 7).
Example Application Goals:
- Set regular times to pray to God.
- Make prayer a priority first and always in whatever life situation.
Timeless Biblical Principle:
Despite your disobedience to God, there is hope of deliverance/rescue for you when you pray to God and put your trust in God. (See Jonah 2:4-6).
Example Application Goals:
- Place reminders readily visible around your home or on your electronics home screens that help you recall God’s deliverance in your life in the past which can support you losing hope in God’s deliverance in a current life situation.
- Search the Bible to discover people throughout history who God brings about divine deliverance/rescue in their lives. Record their situations and the miraculous rescue so that you can review regularly for encouragement to strengthen your trust in God.
Timeless Biblical Principle:
God is the source of salvation for those who call on His name. (See Jonah 2:6-10).
Example Application Goals:
- Keep a daily prayer journal of the people you are praying for God to bring about salvation in their lives. Record how God is working to reconcile each person to Himself. Keep praying for their salvation!
- Talk to someone this week about God is the source of salvation for those who call on His name. This truth should be shared with others!
Timeless Biblical Principle:
When God delivers you from the life circumstances created by your disobedience to Him, you should express praise, thanksgiving, and gratitude to God. (See Jonah 2:9).
Example Application Goals:
- Create a playlist of praise and thanksgiving/worship music so that you listen/sing praises to God and draw near to God in worship through song to express praise, thanksgiving, and gratitude for His deliverance/rescue in your life.
- Search for specific Psalms in the Bible about deliverance from sin or distress. Write a portion or the entire Psalm and try to recite the words daily as a prayer to God. Ask God to help you share the words of the Psalm with someone who needs encouragement that God is still a God who rescues when you cry for help and trust Him.
Why would you set measurable application goals to APPLY God’s truth to your life?
To demonstrate your desire and submission to conform to God’s truth. To show God how much you love Him and want to know Him. To transform into the person God created you to be and to embrace the life God intended for you. Try studying the Bible for yourself with the goal of applying God’s truth to your life!
