Reading the One Year Bible this time of year is not my favorite. The various readings talk about discipline, destruction & death. As I read, I feel like I’m walking through a minefield looking for a stray flower to pick 🤗
Today, as I read the pleas of the prophet Habakkuk, I could relate to the urgency in his voice. The crops had failed, the fields lay fallow & the barns were empty & yet what did this man of God do?
He waited.
He climbed up his watchtower & stood at his guard post waiting for a reply from His commanding officer & King!
The Lord did reply in word, but the rescue seemed slow in coming.
The Babylonians conquered nation upon nation. Psalm 117 tells of the mourning Jews who wept beside the rivers of Babylon. Their captors demanded a song, but how could they sing while they sat captive in a foreign land?
Circumstances can sometimes invoke that feeling of captivity. It doesn’t matter how you arrived, whether by choice or injustice, but the feeling of hopelessness is real right now for many.
Habakkuk is aware of the long list of liabilities the Israelites incurred through their stubborn hearts. God loved them enough to let them fall in their sin, & then loved them even more by allowing them to be taken captive by a counterfeit king!
The King of kings longs to be Lord over our hearts, but we often turn to counterfeit things for comfort only He can provide!
The Lord tells Habakkuk of a coming time of salvation. He encourages the prophet with this:
“If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently…“
There are prayers I’ve been praying as I stand in my watchtower waiting for the Lord’s reply. I know He’s good. I know we can take Him at His Word, but sometimes? Sometimes he seems slow in coming...
Father, I don’t want to require captivity by a counterfeit king to remind me of my need of You! I don’t want to be like the Babylonians who were guilty because they relied on their own strength as their god. I can finagle an outcome with the best of strategists, but I’d much prefer the outcome that arrives when I choose to wait on You. “I’m gonna wait on You. I’ve tasted your goodness & trust in Your promise!”
(Look up “Wait on You” by Maverick City💯!)
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