“There are no ‘unlucky’ children of God.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – September 15, 2026
Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm… Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. Jonah 1:15, 17–2:1
We have all had days that seemed plagued with bad luck. One thing after another goes wrong, and though we may not admit it out loud, it begins to feel like God must be rather disinterested with the goings on of our daily lives. At the end of such a day, we might feel ready to sit under a great big cloud of misfortune and wallow in a puddle of self-pity. But what if, rather than nurse the grievances of bad luck, we looked for God’s hand even in the seeming misfortunes of a hard day? Could it be that he was really right there all along?
There is a wonderful passage in The Horse and His Boy (of C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia) in which the young protagonist, Shasta, declares himself “the unluckiest person in the whole world” because he has met with so many lions on his quest to Narnia and freedom. But then Great Lion Aslan (a representation of Christ) appears and tells Shasta, “I do not call you unfortunate.” He goes on to explain that each lion on the journey was in fact himself, and at each encounter he was protecting and guiding Shasta. What the boy had believed to be his doom was in fact his salvation. Had it not been for the seeming misfortune of lions in his path, Shasta would never have met Aslan nor found his true home and identity.
There is a great similarity in the story of Jonah. We can read the story askew and suppose that God was punishing Jonah by sending a giant fish to swallow him whole. In fact, the fish was God’s vehicle of salvation for the runaway prophet, his means of grace. Not only did the fish save his life from drowning in the sea, but it provided the perfect opportunity for Jonah to humble himself and repent. He eventually sang a song of thanksgiving to God from the fish’s belly (v. 9). No sooner did Jonah turn his heart toward the Lord than God spoke to the fish and instructed it to spit Jonah onto dry land (Jonah 2:7-10), but this time with the prophet’s compass turned in the right direction.
Have misfortunes or deprivations left you feeling, like Shasta, as if you were the unluckiest person in the whole world? Rather than wallowing in pity, consider the Lord who desires to prosper and not to harm you. He may be using the very thing that seems an injustice to you as a means of protecting you from a much greater harm or of refining great treasure in you. Like the Lion keeping watch over the lonely boy, the God who heard a man’s cry from the depths of the sea may be so much closer to you in your “bad luck” moments than you ever dared hope.
Prayer
Good Shepherd, give me eyes to see your rod and staff guiding me and protecting me, even when things don’t go my way. Help me to trust that your power and love are strong enough to make good every difficulty I face. Amen.
Application
The next time you feel a pity party coming on, stop and ask the Lord to help you put the situation into his hands and to trust his love and power to redeem it.
Related Reading
Genesis 50:20; Psalm 23:4; Jeremiah 29:11; John 9:1-3; Romans 8:28
Worship Resource
Francesca Battistelli: He Will
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