Habakkuk

This is a really cool book. It opens with Habakkuk complaining to God...where are You? Why don't You do something? Basically he is saying don't You even care what is happening to us?

God comes right back at him and says:
 ⁵ "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."

I think that is what He still says to us today. You can't even imagine what I am going to do. Look around, be amazed, I am at work all around you and sometimes you are just clueless. That's one of the reasons I like NewSpring's celebration of all God is doing - it's not us but Him and yet He lets us, wants us, to be part of it.

Habakkuk has more than that one complaint but God, of course, answers them all. Habakkuk comes to understand that "the righteous shall live by faith" 2:4 and "the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord" 2:14 and "the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him." 2:20

But my absolute favorite part of this book, and indeed one of my favorite passages in the Bible is the conclusion of Habakkuk's prayer in chapter 3:17-19.
¹⁷ 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,
 ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
 ¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
       he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
       he enables me to go on the heights.

No matter what I WILL rejoice in the Lord, I WILL be joyful in God my Savior. That is one of the things missing in America today. We have forgotten how to rejoice in the Lord. We want to grumble and complain and ridicule those who are far from God. But God is still doing a great work. He is still on His throne. There is still reason to rejoice.