Thursday, February 5, 2015

Prayer....Faith...And More Prayer


Habakkuk 1:12-13 - O LORD my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal -- is your plan in all of this to wipe us out? Surely not! O LORD our Rock, you have decreed the rise of these Babylonians to punish and correct us for our terrible sins. You are perfectly just in this. But will you, who cannot allow sin in any form, stand idly by while they swallow us up? Should you be silent while the wicked destroy people who are more righteous than they?

 

Habakkuk had a heart so broken for the unbalanced world around him that he dared ask some of the hardest questions to God. He knew in his heart that the people of Judah deserved to be punished for their many sins…..but just could not grasp the concept of using even scandalous people to do it.  So he poured out his heart in prayer…and poured his heart out in prayer some more.

 

God told him to “look and be amazed’ at what he was going to do. Perhaps the amazement was that he could use evil to bring about good in the first place. But the truly amazing thing is that he promised to bring that good about in Habakkuk’s lifetime.

 

It reminds me of my favorite verse from Jeremiah 29:11….that God has good plans for me….to prosper me and give me hope for my future. I just have to cling as hard to God as I do that verse to see the plans come to reality.  Habakkuk teaches me that sometimes the way to hold on and have faith is to pour out your worries on God…and just wait for him to comfort and guide me through each one. He may even give me answers that I don’t understand…if I listen for his voice hard enough.

 

Father….thank you for the reminder that you are in control of even the evil in this world and you have a plan to use all of it for the good of all men that love you. Forgive me for the times I allow doubt….or fear…or worry interfere with the faith I need to be strong and wait for each answer you already have for everything that worries me. Teach me to spend even more time in prayer…and pour out each concern to you….so you can help me carry each burden till you lift them in answered prayer.  Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment