RESPONDING IN PRAYER

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.

“Lord, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”

“God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden. Plague went before Him; pestilence followed His steps. He stood, and shook the earth; He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed—but He marches on forever.”

“I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. Were You angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode Your horses and Your chariots to victory? You uncovered Your bow, You called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw You and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of Your flying arrows, at the lightning of Your flashing spear. In wrath You strode through the earth and in anger You threshed the nations.”

“You came out to deliver Your people, to save Your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, You stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear, You pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters. I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.”

“Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights.”

For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Habakkuk 3

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

It had been quite an exchange between God and Habakkuk, an exchange that spanned the first two chapters of this book You’ll recall that the prophet twice filed complaints with the Lord and in both instances, the Lord provided a response to the grievance.

Would Habakkuk grumble a third time?

Not exactly, for as we see in the final chapter of this book bearing the prophet’s name, there was nothing left for God’s messenger to do except come before the Lord and respond to Him in prayer. Look again at these words here:

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.

“Lord, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.”

“God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden. Plague went before Him; pestilence followed His steps. He stood, and shook the earth; He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed—but He marches on forever.”

“I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. Were You angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams? Did you rage against the sea when you rode Your horses and Your chariots to victory? You uncovered Your bow, You called for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers; the mountains saw You and writhed. Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of Your flying arrows, at the lightning of Your flashing spear. In wrath You strode through the earth and in anger You threshed the nations.”

“You came out to deliver Your people, to save Your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, You stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear, You pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding. You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters. I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.”

“Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights.”

For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.  Habakkuk 3

  

God’s reputation preceded Him, definitely well before this documented dialogue with Habakkuk. In fact, God’s past accomplishments, underscored by His mighty signs and wonders, were known by the prophet who stood in awe of the Lord’s deeds, asking for a repeat performance in his time. Ultimately, Habakkuk prayer for the Lord to remember mercy and eventually extend it to the Israelites who were soon to be in the midst of God’s wrath.

What did that wrath look like?

Habakkuk returns to the days of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and the exodus to Canaan that followed. God traveled with His people from south to north, His splendor “like the sunrise”, His glory covering the heavens, and His praise filling the earth. It’s incredible imagery highlighting the divine magnificence of the God of Israel.

Well, it wasn’t just glory and splendor that preceded the Lord as He led His people to the Promised Land. The scriptures tell us that elements of judgment were present as well, elements like plague and pestilence, earthquakes that shook the earth and made the nations tremble. Just ask Egypt during the time of the Israelite captivity. Even the mighty waters of the sea were no match for God’s power which divided them so to rescue the Israelites from harm before crashing the sea walls down upon Pharaoh and his Egyptian forces. As the Israelites traveled the wilderness, former enemies like Cushan and Midian found themselves unable to withstand God’s might. And even the sun and moon stood still as the Israelites defeated the Canaanites during the tenure of the judge Deborah.

In sum, all nations who stood in opposition to God would perish as He threshed them in judgment.

As we know from earlier in this book, Judah was soon to be on God’s threshing floor and would be beaten by the Babylonians. Nothing was going to take away the punishment the Israelites had earned through their worshiping of false gods and idols and he committing of a litany of social injustices, all in direct disobedience to what God had commanded.

Habakkuk knew this was coming and yet he was willing to accept what was ahead, enduring God’s imposed judgment while waiting “patiently for the day of calamity to come” on the Babylonians, the nation who would invade. And while Israel and Judah would be devastated and destroyed, losing everything they held dear, Habakkuk vowed to still “rejoice in the Lord” and “be joyful in God” his savior. Further, the prophet had this to say about the God who had selected him to be a messenger:

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to tread on the heights.”

Judgment was coming. It was going to be extremely hard for a very long time as things changed for the worse in a big way. But Habakkuk knew he would make it through, not by his own strength and power, but rather the strength and power of the Lord, a strength and power he tapped into by prayer.

Friends, Habakkuk is showing us the only proper way to respond to God, no matter the circumstances?

For it’s all about prayer. It’s all about communicating with the God who is always ready to listen and respond.

Think about it in these three contexts:

If someone does something nice for you, you would thank them. Thus, because God is always blessing us in amazing ways, we should always respond with prayers of thanksgiving.

If you do something wrong to someone, you should confess your mistake and say you’re sorry. Thus, because we are all sinners and have done wrong in the Lord’s sight, we should confess our transgressions to Him in prayer, repent, and let Him know we’re sorry.

Finally, if you love and cherish someone, you would always do whatever you could to let them know how you feel about them. Thus, since we should love and cherish no one above the Lord Himself, then we should come before Him in prayer and express our total adoration and devotion.

To communicate His feelings to the Lord, Habakkuk responded in prayer. We would be well served to follow His lead.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com