Faith for the New Year

Gtcotr/ws122723

 

My good friend died today. This message is in memory of Robert Benlien.

 

During the days of the prophet Habakkuk:

• It was a tough time in Israel and for the Children of God. 

• This was roughly 600 years before the birth of Jesus.

• Judah was in captivity in Babylon and Jerusalem was laid to waste.

• How could things have gotten so bad so quickly in his lifetime?

 

Habakkuk 1 NKJV

1 ¶  The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.

2  O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save.

3  Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises.

4  Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

 

Many people felt the same way. The prophet Habakkuk did not speak to people on behalf of God like other prophets did … rather … Habakkuk spoke to God as tohow he felt about the things going on all around him. 

 

However, by the end of the book of Habakkuk, we see him writing a song about his faith in God. He finally talked himself right into trusting God.

 

Have you ever talked to God about something you didn’t understand and ended up defending God’s decisions? Listen to the last words of Habakkuk as he is singing to himself about himself, confirming his trust in God. 

 

Habakkuk 3

17  Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls — 

18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

19  The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.

 

What changed to make this prophet go from talking to God about how bad things were to confessing his confidence in the Lord’s decisions? It certainly wasn’t the circumstances … because things all around him were only getting worse. What changed? Habakkuk did … 

• Habakkuk means ‘strong embrace’

• Habakkuk put his faith in God and embraced what he always knew about God. Listen to what he said to himself … 

 

Habakkuk 2  (Let’s break this down.)

Verse 1:  

• I will stand my watch 

• And set myself on the rampart,

o Go higher … we see better when we go higher

• And watch to see what He will say to me, 

• And what I will answer when I am corrected.

o Corrected vision … it’s a part of life.

 

Verse 2 Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.”

• Small words but in BIG LETTERS! Advertise the will of God to others.

 

Verse 3: 

• “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; 

• But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. 

• Though it tarries, wait for it; 

• Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.”

 

Verse 4:

• “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; 

• But the just shall live by his faith.”

o Romans 1:17

o Galatians 3:11

o Hebrews 10:38

 

In 2024 I will choose to walk by faith and not by sight… I will trust God.