There is hope greater than the darkest day I will ever face.
2 Then the LORD said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. 3 This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.
4 “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
The man of God is right to be upset about the evil world that he lives in, Habakkuk complained to God about it and asked him why, why don't you do something, why have you let evil go unchecked for so long?
We can't help feeling this way if we have a godly perspective of sin, we should be bothered, we should be anxious for God to bring about his greatest promise, we should be yearning for the day when his righteous kingdom will come. (Matthew 6:10)
Habakkuk's complaint receives an answer from God that he doesn't like, the world around him is going to get worse, God is going to use a notoriously more evil people to punish his own chosen people. Man's wisdom says that God should punish the worst people first and work his way down the list to the next most evil people but God doesn't try to do things so that they make sense to our little brains.
God's plan is in motion and everything that happens is a part of that plan. Thankfully God gave us the book of Habakkuk so that we can learn how to face our struggles as we wait on the Lord.
Wait Patiently
The last thing that anybody wants to hear is "be patient" but that's exactly what Habakkuk did. When someone tells us to be patient, it probably means that we aren't behaving very well, it is much easier to blow up than it is to make a deliberate choice to be patient.
We have to decide for ourselves if the circumstances will make us better or bitter. We rarely look at these situations and consider the potential that we have to become more like the person God wants us to become or the person that the other people in your life wish we would become.
Wait With Perspective
It is easy to be overwhelmed and fearful when you are in the middle of the chaos but hope is also pretty easy to find if you change your perspective. If you are at the city gates and you see an attack coming you have every reason to be afraid but if you change your perspective by climbing the watchtower and you see reinforcements on the way it will set your mind at ease.
Romans 8:18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.That is the perspective that the apostle Paul had in the middle of his suffering, he suffered greatly but he viewed it all as a temporary setback that would amount to nothing in comparison to the glorious eternal future that he would enjoy.
Wait Obediently
The main qualification for sitting in the watchtower is watching, this is the last person that you want to find taking a nap, there has to be a commitment. The stakes are too high for such carelessness.
Instead of viewing waiting as a time to rest, think of being a waiter, one that is a servant or an attendant. Instead of being idle, you must keep being active, you don't stop praying, attending worship or studying the Bible just because you aren't getting anything out of it.
Wait Focused on God
When evil days are upon us and it seems like God is withholding his blessings from us, that's when we get to prove our motivation for being a child of God, that's when we prove why we are in a relationship with him.
The blessings and benefits are so great that we can easily focus on the gifts and not the giver of the gifts. Are we desiring the Lord or the Lord's things? Are you faithful even when you aren't getting anything out of it?
Satan's accusation against Job was that Job was loyal and loving toward God because he was getting the things. That's how most of us begin our relationship with God, we are at a tough spot in life that we want help with, it's okay to start there but God expects us to deepen our relationship with him so that it is a true love relationship instead of a self serving, exploitative relationship.
Wait Joyfully
Because of our faith we can live with the difficult circumstances and the evil days that we encounter, the gospel gives us a reason to have confidence in God’s wise and good control of our life, even in the worst of times.
One of the disadvantages of living in such a blessed society as we have is that we lose our joy so quick. The lives of God's people in the Bible were so much more difficult, the evil around them was so much greater, they suffered through evil invaders and they had very little comforts yet they tell us that we need to always have joy. (2 Corinthians 6:10, Philippians 4:4-8)
If we are waiting on him now then he will wait on us when he returns!
Luke 12:35-38 “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. 37 The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded.
I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! 38 He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready.
I don't know how the good news of this parable gets so little attention. How could we overlook such an amazing promise that has been given to the servants that are ready and waiting for Jesus return? How can we lose our joy so easily?
Jesus left us behind to serve him as he prepares a place for us in his father's house, part of making the house ready will be setting the table for a grand feast, a celebration so spectacular that I will have to be given something good enough to wear.
After I am dressed in my new clothes, I will be waited on by my Savior, he will approach the table wearing servants clothes, he will pull the chair out and seat me at the table and then begin to serve me. How can anybody love me that much after I have betrayed them? (John 14:1-4, Revelation 19:6-8)
I need to wait on the Lord in the same way that he will wait on me, I need to serve him enthusiastically even in the darkest of days as I wait for his return, I can rise above the dark days around me because of the amazing future that you are preparing for me.
Jesus left us behind to serve him as he prepares a place for us in his father's house, part of making the house ready will be setting the table for a grand feast, a celebration so spectacular that I will have to be given something good enough to wear.
After I am dressed in my new clothes, I will be waited on by my Savior, he will approach the table wearing servants clothes, he will pull the chair out and seat me at the table and then begin to serve me. How can anybody love me that much after I have betrayed them? (John 14:1-4, Revelation 19:6-8)
I need to wait on the Lord in the same way that he will wait on me, I need to serve him enthusiastically even in the darkest of days as I wait for his return, I can rise above the dark days around me because of the amazing future that you are preparing for me.
