There is a beautiful prayer of praise in the time of trial in
Habbakuk 3:17-18. The title in the New King James version is “A Hymn of Faith”:
“Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the
labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may
be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls – yet I will
rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high
hills.” In chapter 1:2-4, the prophet Habbakuk has asked a question, “O Lord,
how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? Even cry out to you, “Violence!”
and you will not save. Why do you show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife and contention
arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the
wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.” As the
Lord answers him, he is able to come to the place of recognizing who God is,
and that what he sees around him in that present moment is not what will always
be. In chapter 3, he begins to think back to past victories, and to have a
vision of the victory yet to come, and it is in this process that he is able to
come to a place of praising God in the midst of a situation that seems
hopeless.
Christians will often talk about our walk with God in terms
of seasons. We will say that we are in a season of blessing and fruitfulness or
a season of dryness or despair. The strange thing that happens is that it would
seem that it’s easier to praise God when we are in a season of fruitfulness and
blessing, but sometimes we are so busy enjoying the blessing that we forget to
thank God. We can forget when our hearts and tables and cupboards and bank
accounts are full that there may have been a time when they were not. Or we
might feel like we deserve the blessing we have received because we have been
through a time of trial, and so we do thank God for the blessing, while also
feeling as if we are somehow entitled to live with that blessing always so we
can become careless with our praise and forget to be grateful that we have
received God’s grace.God doesn’t play games with us, but there are times when He will allow the enemy to come into our lives so that we can be reminded that it is not our own goodness that has brought us blessing and it is not our works that have given us His grace. God loves each and every one of us, no matter what we have done or not done, and there is no one who “deserves” his blessing. Isaiah 64:6 tells us, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Time after time prophets are brought before God and they cry out that they are unclean and so cannot face the Lord Almighty and live. These are prophets who have been called before God, and they feel unclean and unworthy. Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short or the glory of God,” and Romans 3:10 tells us, “There is none righteous, no not one.” When I think of these truths I am even more profoundly moved by the grace and mercy and love of God because I begin to understand the mystery of His love in a new way. He loves us just because He loves us, and He blesses us because He chooses to bless us.
When we go through a dry season, a season of despair and
discouragement, when we begin to cry out to God as Habbakuk did, “O Lord, how
long shall I cry, and you will not hear?” It is in that moment that we begin to
hear the Lord in a new way, and we begin to understand that He is with us even
in those times of weakness and seeming defeat. He does hear, and He does see.
He knows all things and all hearts. When the Lord answers Habbakuk in chapter
1:5, He says, “Look among the nations and watch – be utterly astounded! For I
will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told
you.” He then goes on to describe the destruction that will be caused by a
warring nation, and Habbakuk is at first confused because it seems as if the Lord
is saying that the destruction and terror will continue. He asks a second question
in verse 13, “Why do you look on those who deal treacherously, and hold your
tongue when the wicked devours a person more righteous than he?” He describes
the destruction and devastation that he sees, and asks in verse 17, “Shall they
continue to empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?”
But then
Habbakuk does something very interesting. In chapter 2 verse 1, after
expressing his confusion and despair and feelings of hopelessness before God,
he says this, “I will stand my watch, and set myself on the rampart, and watch
to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.” He
knows who His God is. He may not understand what is happening or how God works,
but he knows that there is something much bigger than he is that he doesn’t understand.
When the Lord answers this time, He tells Habbakuk that the judgment he has
been waiting for will come, “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets,
that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
but at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for
it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul
is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.” The Lord then
goes on to describe all that He has seen of the wickedness of people and that their time of judgment will come, and
Habbakuk can then know that it is not that the Lord has not seen, but that He
is waiting for the appointed time, the perfect time, to act. It is in that
waiting time, when Habbakuk does not yet see the promised release from oppression
in his own life that He begins to look back on the past salvation of the Lord
and to trust in His deliverance for the future.
We may not always understand God’s timing. And there may be
times when we want Him to act right now because the pressure and oppression and
trial seems too much for us to bear. During those times we may have victories
that we don’t even recognize because we are so focused on the challenge and
struggle and strife all around us. It is in those times that we can choose to
draw nearer to God, to begin to thank Him for the victories we have had and the
victories to come, and to praise Him for His mercy and grace. It is not an easy
thing to do, because as we see the behavior of people around us that is meant
to harm us and others it can seem as if God does not care. But when we take our
eyes off of the destructive acts and look at Him who is the author of the
creative ones, when we remind ourselves of who He is and all that He has
already done, we can know in our spirit that though we see the drought and
devastation of a dry season, the renewal and abundance of a fruitful season
will come.
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
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