In the beginning of the prophet Habakkuk’s writing, he complained about the violence and bloodshed and destruction he was seeing everywhere. His complaint was a demand to know why God had not yet done something about it. God’s reply was simple and patient: I am doing things that you cannot even see. By the end of this short book Habakkuk wrote this:
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 (ESV)
Hakakkuk went from complaining about his circumstances to praising God for who he is. What changed? His circumstances did not. What changed was Habakkuk’s perspective. At the beginning of his book he could only see his circumstances. By the end he could see the LORD God of Israel. By the end he was seeing the world through the eyes of faith.
Today, let’s change our perspective. Let’s pray and praise God for who he is. Let’s praise him for what he has done. Let us offer to him our thanksgiving for his past, present, and future faithfulness. Let’s praise him for the blessings we have experienced and are still experiencing. Let us pray that we would trust God and see his goodness even in the midst of whatever trial we are experiencing, even if it is the valley of the shadow of death.
Pray today that this time would draw us close to him. Let us praise God for what Jesus did in dying for us, and what he is doing now, even if we cannot yet see it.