If you watch or listen to the news lately, what you will
most likely hear is a myriad of angry voices hurling insults or decrying what
someone else said, did, or is doing.
I was a child during the late sixties and remember the Vietnam
War protests, the Civil Rights marches, and all of the anger from opposing
sides, but what we are witnessing today seems far worse; to me anyway.
A few years ago, I was hearing TV gurus, like Oprah Winfrey,
talking about trust your feelings, listen to your heart, and truth being
relative, “What is true for you may not be true for me” and vice versa. If a
dog bites your leg, the truth is, it hurts. That cannot be true for one and not
true for another. Not unless one is dead, unconscious, or has no feeling in
that leg. The same is true for death. A dead person is dead, physically anyway,
no matter how you look at it. Now, whether the person’s soul lives on and
where, might be debatable but the truth is, that person is not going to
get up, walk around, and talk to you as in days before.
In all the years of my life, I have not seen the absolute
hatred spewing forth as I have since the days leading up to the 2016 election,
continuing up until today. I hate to think this is the new normal but I’m
afraid it is. Now, before you go accusing me of being a pessimist, let me tell
you why. I read my Bible every day and while I do not claim to be a Bible
expert, I am not that stupid either. Okay, maybe that is disputable but just
try to follow with me for a minute. Over and over in Scripture, we read about
Israel and how they turned away from God. God “allowed” other, more un-Godly,
nations to conquer them because they refused to listen to His spokesmen
(prophets, priests, judges, etc.).
America was founded on God and His biblical principles. We
were a Christian nation, not perfect, but look at us today! We murder our
children, reject truth (and don’t even really know what the word means
apparently), support unholy relationships, worship the creation rather than the
Creator, and have allowed God to be removed from our schools, courthouses,
other public institutions, and even many of our churches.
Maybe God is allowing all of the strife we are seeing today
to get our attention and lead many to salvation. Should Christians be afraid
though?
You may be asking yourself, where are you going with all of this?
Okay, here goes…
In his book, Be Amazed: Restoring an Attitude of Wonder
and Worship, OT Commentary on Minor Prophets, Warren Wiersbe, in his
section on Habakkuk, chapter 3, is discussing faith and writes, “Habakkuk has
faced the frightening fact that his nation will be invaded by a merciless
enemy. The prophet knows that many of the people will go into exile and many
will be slain. The land will be ruined, and Jerusalem and the temple will be
destroyed. Yet he tells God that he will trust Him no matter what happens!”
“I will wait patiently on the Lord” (Habakkuk
3:16).
This is not the first time God has brought destruction on
His people and their land, the land He gave them, and Habakkuk is well aware of
how bad things were in the past.
Wiersbe continues, “If Habakkuk had depended on his
feelings, he would never have made this great confession of faith. If Habakkuk
looked ahead, he saw a nation heading for destruction, and that frightened him.
When he looked within, he saw himself trembling with fear, and when he looked
around, he saw everything in the economy about to fall apart. But when he
looked up by faith, he saw God, and all his fears vanished. To walk by faith
means to focus on the greatness and glory of God.”
Let that sink in, “To walk by faith means to focus on the
greatness and glory of God.”
He then makes what I consider to be another profound
statement, “One of the marks of faith is a willingness to wait patiently for
the Lord to work. ‘Whoever believes will not act hastily’ (Isa. 28:16 NKJV).
When we run ahead of God, we get into trouble.”
These nuggets of wisdom just keep coming: “When you know God
is working in your life, you can afford to wait quietly and let Him have His
way. Furthermore, God had commanded him to wait (2:3) and ‘God’s commandments
are God’s enablements.’ No matter what we see and no matter how we feel, we
must depend on God’s promises and not allow ourselves to ‘fall apart. ‘Rest in
the Lord and wait patiently for Him’ (Ps. 37:7).”
It appears that, in times such as these, we should, 1) Be
still, 2) pray, and 3) wait on the Lord. No matter what is going on, God is
still on His throne, and He is still, very much in charge. Instead of
complaining about why God doesn’t do something, we would do well to see it
rightly, He is doing something, and we need to reflect inwardly towards
ourselves and ask what we are doing wrong, rather than outwardly at God and asking
why He doesn’t do what we want Him too.
I’ll let Wiersbe have the final word: “Whenever we find
ourselves getting ‘churned up’ within, we can be sure that we need to stop,
pray, and wait on the Lord before we do some stupid thing.”
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