Where I live the trees are already getting little splotches of color. How is it where you live?
Autumn represents changes. While it is beautiful, it also represents a change I am not too fond of: Winter is coming.
Now I could fight God and yell at Him, and plead and beg for summer to last longer. Would it change the impending fact that “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” ?(Genesis 8:22)
We can pray and fast and weep, but God is not obligated to do what WE want. He does what is right in all the earth.
Recently, I had my birthday. It was an awesome birthday in many ways, but mostly because God showed up in some surprising places. One way, was that, as I prayed, God revealed something special to me.
There was a situation I had prayed ferociously about for a long season, yet it did not end the way I believed it would. Have you ever had that happen?
I saw God’s signature in many ways as I prayed over the situation, but I still grappled with what seemed a lack of answer to my fervent prayer.
Then, on my birthday, as I hung out with the Lord He just sorta downloaded a truth about that same situation into my heart. I saw how the things I had wanted, would NOT have been good for many people, including myself. He showed me how He was clearly at work, and that He had answered as He did for my sake. He was looking out for me. I felt His tender love and care in that moment.
And not just me. His love and compassion was over all.
What had felt like a prayer failure, was not a failure at all. God had answered in HIS way, and He had done the right, the just, the most loving thing!
I could see it so clearly.
I could then say with Abraham “Should not the judge of all the earth do right?”
And the answer is: Yes. God always does the right thing.
And that is why, these four words: “Thy will be done” in the Lords prayer are so heavy laden with meaning. So much so, Jesus Himself cried out from the depths of His being in the garden of Gethsemene “O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.”
He was saying if there is ANY.OTHER.WAY do it! But not MY will but THINE be done.”
And the Father answered by ushering Jesus into a torturous death on a cross. Whereby He said “There is no other way.”
Jesus told us to pray “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” For God’s Kingdom to come, Gods will must be done. It only makes sense. They go together like “shoobie doobie do wap she bop.” (If you ever saw Grease you get that reference)
On earth, it may not always “feel” like God did the right thing.
I covered this topic in a two part series a few months back, and I will link back to those episodes in the show notes. I was tempted just to republish those episodes and move on, but then… I read the book of Habakkuk. I had to stop. Here was a man who clearly did not think the will of God was a good choice. In fact, He is incensed to hear what the future of his people will be.
Let’s take a look at this tiny, 3 chapter book, tucked in obscurity among the other minor prophets.
You may not be familiar with the book of Habakkuk, but if you attend church anywhere the Bible is revered, you are surely familiar with a few of the poignant verses we find there. Verses such as:
“The just shall live by faith”
“The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.”
“The Lord is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds (deer) feet.”
These beautiful verses were not just designed to make a nice wall placque. They grew up from the rich, dark soil of the desperation in Habakkuk’s soul when Gods plan was revealed to him. In fact, the name Habakkuk means ‘the wrestler.” And here is a man who wrestled with God. Lets look at his story and find out who won that match. (Though I’m thinking you have a good idea already…)
The book of Habakkuk begins with the prophet pleading with God to do something about the terrible situation in Israel. The government is corrupt. The people are corrupt.
“O Lord, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear?” He asks. Ever felt that way?
“Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to see trouble?”
He’s so frustrated! Where is God? The world around Him is falling apart and digressing into a cesspool of evil and it seems like God is not paying any attention!
Can you relate? Ever see the news and think these exact thoughts? Or you’ve prayed about a situation that continues to sit like a giant boulder, refusing to budge?
In those times I wonder: where is God? What is He thinking?! Surely this God, revealed in the Word is not pleased. Wouldn’t He just be waiting for someone to step up to the plate and pray?
Do Something about this, God!
Now, what I like about Habakkuk, is He doesn’t just pray and walk away. No. He is always waiting, and even expecting an answer! THIS is what makes him a prophet and not only a pray-er. The same is important for you. Pray.. but then LISTEN. Know that God WILL answer!
God does answer: to paraphrase God responds “Oh. I am about to do something about this evil, I am sending the Chaldeans. They are terrible, wicked, and full of pride. They will destroy freely and even give themselves the credit for what they do, not acknowledging I sent them.”
Habbakuk is like… What??!!
In Chapter 1 verses 12-17 Habakkuk is basically taking God aside to give him a good talking to:
“Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my Holy One. We shall not die… Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst look on iniquity. Wherefore loosest Thou upon them that deal treacherously? And holdest Thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?”
In other words Habakkuk is stamping his foot and throwing a tantrum, screaming: “That’s not Fair!”
But Habakkuk then does what we so often DO NOT do when Gods ways confuse us. In chapter two Habakkuk says he will go into His watch tower and wait to hear what God will say.
I wonder if he was actually in a watch tower? Sometimes we just get into “watch tower” mode. Maybe we have to throw a tantrum for a minute or two, but then stop and just wait for God’s answer. Habakkuk even says “I will watch to see what He will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved.”
Habakkuk knows God is God. He still believes God is good, and therefore expects God to chastise him.
I feel this is how we really, truly trust and rest in the Lord. It’s when life makes us crazy. When we are disillusioned, downcast, and devastated, and still crawl into our watch tower because we choose to believe God IS good in the midst of our pain. He WILL reveal Himself in some way when we “cease striving” and turn it all over to Him.
God does not disappoint. He meets Habakkuk in that watchtower and tell him to write the vision down, so that the hearers have an opportunity to flee from the judgment that is coming towards them.
This is where the Lord utters that famous phrase: “The just shall live by his faith.”
When the winds are howling and the thunder is crashing over head, those that truly know God, that are righteous in Gods eyes, they still trust. They still obey. They still believe.
God then goes on to reveal to Habakkuk that He is indeed just. Too just to allow His people to continue in their ways. The Lord promises Habakkuk that one day “The earth will be filled with he knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
God concludes by saying “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silent before Him.” (Had 2:20)
I once sent my kids with their father while I sat with God to ask Him questions about my uncertain future. As I prayed, I suddenly sensed the very presence of God. I had been waiting for him, and he had come!
But
I found I was at a complete loss for words! Whatever the many questions were in my mind they melted like ice cream on a hot sidewalk. Nothing I could ask mattered a smidge next to His simple, powerful, presence.
We complain and moan and gripe, but we really have no idea what is really going on, what the future holds, and how God will take all we know and mold it in time to something beautiful. Just be still Cease striving. Know God knows and say “Thy will be done.”
Sure, we still pray. We ask. We plead. The Lords prayer still has plenty of that. Jesus Himself did it.
But in the end, we allow for the truth that the Lords will is, in the end, our will.
Another time I questioned the goodness of God took place after our young family moved to a small city in the middle of the cold, dark woods of the upper peninsula. We expected a church to spring up as we moved in. Instead, we experienced rejection, poverty, uncertainty, and loneliness.
Another bill, another bout of bad news, caused me to despair. “God,” I prayed, as I dropped my head against the wall of our cold plaster house. “If you don’t hate me, why does it feel like you do?”
God’s answer came simply, dropping into my heart like an autumn leaf. “Because” He replied, “I love you.”
Did I understand?
No.
But somehow I knew, the end of it all would be good. He was allowing the pain out of love… somehow. I was satisfied with that answer. It gave me all I needed to go on, saying “Thy will be done.”
Let us end where the book of Habakkuk ends. I will read His poetic final thoughts and as you listen, make it your prayer today:
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall all be cut off from the fold, and there shall 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 is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
There are high places to reach!
You are on your way.
If you feel this podcast could benefit others, please leave a review wherever you listen and share it freely.
