Wait Patiently...Even If The Answer Is Slow

Habakkuk 2:1-3 -  I will climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the LORD will say to me and how he will answer my complaint. Then the LORD said to me, "Write my answer in large, clear letters on a tablet, so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else. But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed."

 

Habakkuk had poured out his heart to God.  He had asked him some pretty tough questions.  He needed the answers really bad...just to understand what was happening around him. So he climbed up in the nearest watchtower….to wait on God’s answer.  He was prepared to wait as long as he needed…but he wanted to be in the best spot he could be to hear the answer when it came.

 

Waiting is one of the hardest things that God asks us to do.  We have learned how to speed up most other things.  We have created fast food… drive through windows at banks… self-check outs at most stores… and can manipulate most other earthly things to our advantage.  But time is one of the things that we can’t completely control.

 

When we pray and God says no right away… it is a definite enough answer for us to move on….even if we weren’t prepared for the no.  When he says yes…our heart is so overjoyed that the pure elation of the moment carries us through the yes.  But when God says wait… it means we have to trust in him just that much more…until the day he decides to say yes or no.

 

I admit that I don’t wait well.  I hear and see things and try to convince myself that what I saw or heard is God’s answer. Perhaps I need to build a watchtower in my heart to listen for God’s answer.  Perhaps if I were in the best spot I could be to listen… I would hear his answers more clearly.  I know I could use the time I am asked to wait a lot more effectively if I were not trying to manipulate the things I see and hear into his answers.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that time is in your hands…not mine.  Forgive me for the times that I have manipulated answers to be what I wanted.  Help me to be a better waiter…and use the time you ask me to wait to study more… pray more…. and search out more sin in my heart for you to wash away.  Give me the resolve of Habakkuk….to find the best spot to hear your answers…so satan’s whispers don’t trick me as much.  Amen.

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.

Beauty Is Not Always Good

Nahum 3:4-6 -  All this because Nineveh, the beautiful and faithless city, mistress of deadly charms, enticed the nations with her beauty. She taught them all to worship her false gods, enchanting people everywhere. "No wonder I am your enemy!" declares the LORD Almighty. "And now I will lift your skirts so all the earth will see your nakedness and shame.  I will cover you with filth and show the world how vile you really are.

 

Nahum’s last written words to the people of Nineveh revealed the root of its problem. She had let her beauty become her God. It left her faithless and enticed others to follow her example of wickedness.  She drew the people around her into her sin….multiplying the evil that its walls contained. God was going to destroy it completely…and reveal to the world just how evil it really was.

 

Satan is really good at hiding evil in what we perceive to be beautiful packages. What may look beautiful on the outside may be a trap…to lure us into something that God would not approve. I can think of many times when I have made my decisions based on the surface looks of the situation…and not really prayed very deeply to God for what he would have me to do. The results were not what I thought…and I had to eventually admit my lack of faith and connection to God so that he could begin to repair the damage my decision had done.

 

Evil is so disgusting to God. He will only allow it for a time…then he will bring it to an end.  Sometimes he will allow evil in our life simply because we chose it.  Sometimes he allows it because he knows that the evil will teach us something valuable about following closer to him.  I know that of I prayed more for God to guard me from evil …like the words of the Lord’s prayer he left us with….it would not touch me near as much.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that evil…horrible as it is sometimes…has a purpose in existing.  Forgive me for the times that I have allowed the beauty of a situation trick me into a trap of sin. Help me to pray for your protection and covering from evil and sin. Give me the strength and faith to resist any more of satan’s tricks.  Amen.

Don't Let Sin Back Sneak Back Into Your Life

Nahum 2:12-13 - O Nineveh, you were once a mighty lion! You crushed your enemies to feed your cubs and your mate. You filled your city and your homes with captives and plunder.  "I am your enemy!" says the LORD Almighty. "Your chariots will soon go up in smoke. The finest of your youth will be killed in battle. Never again will you bring back plunder from conquered nations. Never again will the voices of your proud messengers be heard."

 

Nahum was given the task of pronouncing Nineveh’s end for the second time.  As completely as they had repented of their sins when Jonah preached to them….they fell once again to the sin that once gripped them.  They had taken advantage of God’s people….and this time they did not repent.  Their choice to stay in sin signed their death warrant…never again to rise as a people or nation.

 

Sin has a way of sneaking back into even the most repentant hearts. It sneaks in through the door we open to satan with a simple white lie….a justification not to tithe…an excuse that we don’t have time to serve God in some way….or just telling our self we are too tired to go to church and participate in worship just one Sunday. He gets his invitation that we are weakening our resolve to be bold and faithful…then he uses his skills of reasoning to talk us into even bigger sins…like he did Eve when she ate that apple.  

 

It reminds me to be extra careful to constantly repent and ask God to identify the little sins that satan can use to read my heart…for if sin gets such a grip on my heart that I don’t see it as sin anymore…I run the risk of being just like Nineveh. Satan loves to introduce new ways for pride to take up more room in my heart than humility…then he can have more control of my thoughts and actions than God.

 

Jesus taught them in Matthew 12:43-45 that evil only leaves us for a time….and when it returns to see our clean heart…it brings reinforcements. It says…. “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, 'I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”

 

Father…thank you f or the reminder to keep humility at the center of all I do and think. Forgive me for the times that I have been like Nineveh and let sin return even stronger in my life than it was when God removed it.  Help me pray daily for you to identify all sin…so I can ask you to forgive me and remove it…and keep my heart so clean and strong that satan can’t find any cracks to sneak in by.   Amen.

God's Compassion Gives Us Strength In Times Of Trouble

Nahum 1:3-7 - The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet.  At his command the oceans and rivers dry up, the lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade, and the green forests of Lebanon wilt.  In his presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles, and its people are destroyed. Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence.  The LORD is good. When trouble comes, he is a strong refuge. And he knows everyone who trusts in him.

 

Nahum did things just a bit different that the other prophets of his day. He wrote his visions down….and sent them to the people God told him they were about. He wrote these words that seem to contradict each other to the people of Nineveh…perhaps 100 years after they had repented upon hearing the words of Jonah.  They had slipped back into the ways of their fathers …..evil had taken over their city once again.

 

Yes…God is a jealous God.  He will not share our love with any other being…or any other object. But this God that is capable of drying up the Red Sea….or giving his son the power to speak quiet into a raging storm…is slow to show the full power of his wrath. He wants to give everyone a chance to repent before he pronounces the final judgment.

 

Because he is slow to anger…his compassion when we are troubled shows his best feature.  He wraps us with his love and comforts us. He takes our hand and walks with us through the worst of the storm.  He even hides us in his peace if we let him.  The only thing we have to do is trust him.

 

I admit…trust is not as easy as speaking the words. It takes a routine of faith to keep the strength to let him take over and be our refuge. We must develop a relationship with daily prayer and study of his word in order to transfer the trust we have in what we can see and hear…to the trust we could have in God’s unknown future.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that you are my refuge and strength.  Forgive me for the times that I forget to call on your power to help me through a hard time…and fall back on my own skills. Thank you for picking me up after I fall…and dusting me off…and helping me to get going in the right direction again. Help me Lord to trust you more and more each day by spending more and more time with you in prayer and study.  Amen.

Be Confident In The Lord....Like Micah

Micah 7:7-8 -   As for me, I look to the LORD for his help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.  Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD himself will be my light.

 

Micah begins his last chapter with his version of a ‘state of the union’ address.  No honesty could be found…God had been left so far behind he saw no evidence he was ever there. Brothers had turned against brothers….bribes and extortion ruled the heart of everyone.

 

Micah alone was willing to stand for God.  He was willing to wait ….with confidence while God punished the people for their sins and taught them the power of repentance. He knew that when he fell…God would pick him back up and be the light he needed to walk out of the darkness.

 

It is a reminder to me to be more like Micah.  I need to learn how to wait….to let God bring me through the darkness of my tougher moments…be patient when his punishments are trying to teach me the lessons he needs me to know….and let God be the judge of anything I perceive to be a hurt to me.

 

Jesus told his disciples in Luke 17:6 and Matthew 17:20 that it only takes a small amount of faith …the size of a tiny mustard seed….to move the mountains in our pathway. Micah is teaching us the way to start collecting that faith is to rely on God for everything. He is telling us to stop rationalizing our sins and start repenting of them. He is telling us that living God’s way is the way to repair the brokenness in our lives and move into the blessings and promises of God.

 

Father….thank you for the reminder that I need more faith. Forgive me for the times that I have sat in front of the mountains in my life and whined about how hard things were.  Help me be more like Micah….willing to sit in front of those mountains and wait for you to move in my behalf…knowing that the time I wait will be nothing in comparison to the light on the other side.  Amen.

God Only Requires Three Things

Micah 6:6-8 -  What can we bring to the LORD to make up for what we've done? Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves?  Should we offer him thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of olive oil? Would that please the LORD? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for the sins of our souls? Would that make him glad? No, O people, the LORD has already told you what is good, and this is what he requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

 

Micah directed his next words to all the people. He wanted them to hear the words God had given him to help them understand how to clean up the sin in their lives. The list of sins that God charged them with included turning away from him…impatience….making empty promises…. and unthankful hearts. There was no way to repay God for the trouble they had caused him….he just wanted them to start over in that moment and do three things.  Keep their activities with others fair….show mercy to all who had wronged them….and walk humbly in a daily relationship with him.

 

Micah advice from God translates perfectly for the world of today.  The list of sins is the same….I sure am guilty of all of them at one point or another. I sure can’t repay God for the gift he gave me in his son…so I need to concentrate on finding a way to do a better job of keeping my doings with others fair.  I ned to do a better job of showing mercy….especially to those that have hurt me. And walking closer with him every day and building a relationship with him like Micah had….can do nothing but strengthen me for whatever attacks satan has planned in my future.

 

It is a reminder to me that I am never as humble as I could be. I was reminded just last night in my amazing Celebrate Recovery group just how selfish and surface my life is sometimes. My problems …my hurts and hang ups pale in comparison to the daily struggle God is using to teach my friends how to cling to him more tightly. That verse in Luke  7:47 reminds me that forgiveness is key to grasping the full understanding of God’s great peace and mercy.  It says…. “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little." What a great reminder of just how much I am blessed ….and how I need to thank him more…and whine less.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that I need to concentrate more of the three things you require of me most.  Forgive me for the times that I have let the world blind me from being forgiving….doing what is right…and walking humbly with you evry day.  Take the remnant of pride and selfishness that keeps trying to make its way back in my life….and destroy it forever. Amen.