God has a plan and a purpose for everything that comes into your life.
Habakkuk 2:14-16 For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the LORD.
15 “What sorrow awaits you who make your neighbors drunk! You force your cup on them so you can gloat over their shameful nakedness. 16 But soon it will be your turn to be disgraced. Come, drink and be exposed! Drink from the cup of the LORD’s judgment, and all your glory will be turned to shame.
Habakkuk cries out in desperation and asks God why he isn't doing something to end the evil and injustice that surrounds him. He is tired of the oppressive evil and injustice that he sees in the nation that is supposed to be God's chosen people. How can God allow his people to go on this way?
But when God replies, Habakkuk has to ask God if he really knows what he is doing, how can a notoriously more evil people be used to judge God's people that are less evil? (Habakkuk 1:12-17)
Habakkuk was waiting for an answer from God to help him understand what he is doing. God let's him know that Babylon will be judged and it will be more devastating than the judgment of God's people that Babylon is bringing.
We have to decide to trust and accept that God has a plan and a purpose for every good and bad thing that comes into our life.
Look at the proud! They trust in themselves.
In Habakkuk chapter two we can see that pride is at the center of the sins of the Babylonian culture. It's the same with us today, we long for acceptance and approval so we seek our own glory instead of God's, we never learn that self gratification never works.
Pride will leave us empty and always striving for more, we can win a contest, get a trophy and a lot of applause but when the attention fades away we are still looking for approval and acceptance. We can be like the Babylonians, we can conquer the world, but we will not find satisfaction unless we continue to exploit, abuse and conquer someone or something else.
Pride is a strange creature; it never objects to its lodgings. It will live comfortably enough in a palace, and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel. Is there any man in whose heart pride does not lurk?The Babylonians sins are our sins, our evil culture looks too much like theirs, obviously we are slow learners because the history of sin continues to be repeated as we continue to do the same things that they did:
-Spurgeon
- Selfish ambition (Habakkuk 2:6-8),
- Greed (Habakkuk 2:9-11),
- Exploit people (Habakkuk 2:12-14),
- Drunkenness and violence (Habakkuk 2:15-17)
- Idolatry (Habakkuk 2:18-20).
Everybody that rejects God to live for themselves is going to keep doing the same sins and be shocked when they don't get a different result.
The righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
God's righteous people will admit that he is still in control and no matter what happens he never leaves his throne. God sees everything that we are going through just as he did in the Bible, look how many godly people went through extremely difficult experiences without losing faith.
It is difficult to understand that God is in control but scripture also tells us that we are responsible for our choices. In our minds it is an apparent contradiction that we cannot resolve, it is true that God is in control but it is equally true that we are not puppets and we get to choose because we have free will.
The righteous won't manipulate and use people, they won't look at others and think about what that person can do for them. I can treat people better because my glory and honor comes from God and his love and applause are all that should matter to me.
Habakkuk 2:20 But the LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.”I need to stop complaining when difficult times come my way because he sends them for his purpose and his glory. I will trust God to take care of me and work everything out for my good because of his great love for me and my great love for him. (Romans 8:28)
I need to love God in all of his glory and allow him to remove my pride, I need to trust in his power and allow him to be my source of honor and glory.
