Though Isaac Watts was the Father of English Hymnody, he was first and foremost a local pastor. On the subject of prayer, he encouraged his congregation to include repentance as a part of their habit in coming to the Lord. He wrote, “We should confess our sins under the sense of the guilt of them, as well as under the deep and mournful impressions of the power of sin in our hearts.”¹

Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2 is essentially a prayer of repentance and of rededication. Though Jonah was deep in the heart of the ocean, the Lord heard every word. If God listened to Jonah from the depths of the sea, don’t you think He will listen to you no matter where you are or what you’ve done? 

Let’s learn to include repentance and rededication in our prayers. The Lord is more willing to forgive us than we are to ask for forgiveness. But we should confess our sins so as to have fresh joy in our daily walk with God.

Thus I abandon every thing that would divide me from God, to whom I have made a surrender of myself.
Isaac Watts