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
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