No. 7 · 1 October 2026
Jonah prayed it first, and he was furious. God didn't stop him.
There's a prayer most of us have never said out loud. It goes something like this: I don't want you to be kind to them.
I don't mean enemies in the abstract. I mean one specific person. The brother who left you to handle Dad's last two years and then turned up for the will reading. The ex who's remarried and happy and posting holiday photos from Portugal. The manager who took the credit and got the promotion.
We don't pray about these people. Or we pray the polite version. "Lord, bless them." Then we go back to replaying the argument in the shower.
Jonah 4 contains one of the least devotional prayers in the Bible. That's exactly why it's worth reading.
The context matters. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, an empire famous for its cruelty and one Israel had every reason to fear. Jonah is sent to warn the city. It repents. God relents. And Jonah is livid.
"Isn't this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love." (Jonah 4:2, NIV)
Look at what he's doing there. He's quoting Exodus 34:6 back at God, and he means it as an accusation. Your mercy is the problem. That's why I ran.
It's petty. It's also honest. And God doesn't strike him down. He asks a question instead: "Is it right for you to be angry?"
Here's roughly how that sounds on a Wednesday, sitting in the car before you go in.
God, I don't want good things for them. I know you do. I think that's unfair and I'm saying so. I'm not ready to forgive and I won't pretend I am. Don't let me become someone who needs them to fail. That's all I've got today.
That's the whole prayer. There's no borrowed King James phrasing in it, and nothing you'd change if someone overheard.
The last line is where it turns. You aren't asking God to change them. You're asking him not to let the grudge change you.
Being honest about resentment doesn't make it go away. Some weeks you'll pray this and feel exactly the same afterwards.
There's a real risk too. Say the grievance often enough and it stops being a confession and turns into a rehearsal. If you catch yourself polishing it, stop.
Christians genuinely disagree about how far this goes. Some read the angry Psalms, Psalm 109 for one, as permission to hand God your fury in full. Others think the cross changed that, and they're uneasy praying those Psalms straight. Scholars also split on whether Jonah is history or a pointed parable. Neither question has a tidy answer.
Nobody disputes how the book ends, though. God asks Jonah whether he shouldn't care about a city of a hundred and twenty thousand people who can't tell their right hand from their left, "and also many animals."
Jonah never answers.
The book just stops there, and the question passes to whoever's holding it. This week that might be you, sitting in the car, thinking about your brother.