God is at Work

Look at the nations and watch—

and be utterly amazed.

For I am going to do something in your days

that you would not believe,

even if you were told.

                Habakkuk 1:5 NIV 

     Do you ever hear yourself complaining to God that you wish He would do something? Do you tell him that things are out of control and wonder why he is not acting? Are your circumstances almost unbearable? Do you think that God has forgotten you? Do you watch the news and ask, “How long O, LORD?”

     Habakkuk could certainly sympathize with you. He prophesied between the fall of Nineveh and the Babylonian invasion of Judah. He watched as Babylon rose to world domination and finally complained to God about all he witnessed and feared. His complaints and God’s answers are recorded for us in the book of Habakkuk.

     He asked God many of the same questions that we have today. He complained that destruction and violence along with strife and conflict abounded and that the law was paralyzed and justice never prevailed. He also complained that the wicked hemmed in the righteous to pervert justice. He asked God, “Why do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”  (v 13)

     Just like Habakkuk, we also can become distracted by the evil which surrounds us. Wars and rumors of wars, unspeakable evil and corruption in our courts and political system can strike fear in the hearts of the most courageous among us.

     Like Habakkuk, we too may wonder why God is silent. We may wonder why He seems distant in the midst of so much sorrow and impending doom. But we must never forget that although our enemy, the devil, would be overjoyed to have us think that God is missing, does not care or that God is dead, nothing could be more wrong.

     God’s timing often confuses our finite minds. His patience and plans can throw our thought patterns into chaos. We like to strategize, plan and know the outcome, but God’s way is that we put our trust, our faith and our hope in Him alone.

     If you are enduring a time when God is silent in your life, remember—

His silence does not mean He is absent but rather that He is working out His plan for your life. Remember His Word to Habakkuk, watch and wait and you just may be amazed to discover that God is at work!

 

© Joyce Powell