Power Prayer - Jonah

This is our Sunday teaching from Senior Pastor, Lesley Thompson, tag-teaming with Dorothy Tamuno. Recorded live at our service in Harris Academy Purley, Croydon on Sunday 17th August, 2025. Below you can find the full talk audio, and a summary article.

Want to lead a Connect Group session on this teaching? The notes are here!

Talk Summary - Power Prayer: Jonah

This summer at Croydon Vineyard we’ve been exploring Power Prayers. Last week we looked at Hannah, who prayed for her circumstances to change. This week, Leslie and Dorothy shared with us the story of Jonah—a man who prayed not for a new situation, but out of the depths of his rebellion, despair, and finally, repentance.

Jonah is not the smiling children’s picture-book prophet we sometimes imagine. The real Jonah is angry, stubborn, and even suicidal at times. When God tells him to go to Nineveh—a violent Assyrian city and an enemy of Israel—Jonah flatly refuses. He runs in the opposite direction, boarding a ship and hoping to escape God’s call.

But God, in His mercy, does not leave Jonah there. A violent storm threatens to tear the ship apart, and the pagan sailors—who don’t even worship Yahweh—cry out for mercy. Jonah, meanwhile, stays silent, preferring death over obedience. Eventually, he asks to be thrown overboard. Yet instead of drowning, he is swallowed by a great fish, kept alive by God’s mercy.

It’s in the belly of this fish—at rock bottom—that Jonah finally prays:

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me… But you, Lord my God, brought my life up from the pit” (Jonah 2:2,6).

Dorothy reminded us that Jonah’s prayer, though late, was powerful. He cried out to God in desperation, and God heard him. Jonah’s prayer changed not only his future, but the future of an entire city, because God is merciful even to the broken, the angry, and the unworthy.

She also shared her own story of crying out to God when her newborn son was in intensive care. Like Jonah, she felt overwhelmed and tempted to run away. But when she cried out with the confidence of a child calling “Mama!”, God answered with mercy and brought life.

The message is simple but profound: deep places call for deep prayers. Wherever we find ourselves—whether in an internal storm of anger or grief, or an external storm of circumstance—we can cry out to God. And the good news is this: if God showed mercy to Nineveh, if He rescued Jonah, and if He met Dorothy in her moment of despair, He will meet you too.

There is always mercy.