Wednesday, May 26, 2021
I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:16-19
Remember and Rejoice
Life is a combination of hills and valleys, mountaintop experiences mixed with the lowest of the lows. The most important part about getting through the lows is remembering what God has done. We can’t trust our faith in God based on our feelings, because our feelings fluctuate like our circumstances do. Even when we have trouble feeling like God is in control, we can remember how faithful He has been in the past in our lives. Prayer – communicating with God – is a way we can declare what we believe to be true, even when we are experiencing some very difficult circumstances. Habakkuk had gotten word that the Babylonians, an enemy that was far more evil than any enemy they had faced, was coming for them.
In Habakkuk Chapter 3, Habakkuk is seeking revival from God for his land, and he recalls all that God has done. His reason for this was to state that revival comes from God, not the work of men. All we can do is ask Him for revival. He does the work. Then he begins praising God for all He has done and for the revival he knows that his faithful God will bring. He finds out the Babylonians are coming, and he is afraid. He tells God of his fear, but he acts in faith. He begins to state what God has already done, not frantically start praying for God to deliver them from the Babylonians.
God You Have…
Habakkuk speaks of how God has shown His power and might. He talks of how God has rescued His people. He shows us that even in fear, we can have faith. Having faith does not mean we are not afraid. It means we can push through the fear in determination to trust our more than capable God and rejoice in the results, no matter what they are.
Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength…
Once again, the key is having a relationship with God, and prayer makes this relationship possible. Habakkuk knew God. He knew what He had already done, and He knew God was faithful. So even when the fiercest enemy approached, he knew that God would be there, He would be faithful, He would be in control, and He would be his strength. Like Habakkuk, we can remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness when the enemy closes in, when the bank account in empty, when the shelves are bare, and when our fear rises. And, as hard as it may feel, we can praise Him and rejoice is the results because He is the same faithful God, no matter the situation.
