Allowing God to be God

Habakkuk 2:1-5

Most of us pray, we sometimes plead and even beg God to hear and respond in such a way that it is clear His will is done.  And often I show how little understanding I have of my Creator when I try to offer advice on how He should answer my request.  Often, we must do as Habakkuk and wait for God’s response.  Today as we explore the following verses we can learn from Habakkuk’s willingness to stand at his guard post at the lookout tower, and wait for what God has to say to him and how he should reply about his complaint.

Verse one, “I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”

You and I would be wise to follow God’s instruction when He answers our prayer, and keep a record of how He spoke to us.  Look at verses 2-5, “Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.  For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie.  If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest.  His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death, he has never enough.  He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.”

The appointed time for the vision was future, but that did not change the results the Babylon invasion will come true.  Yes, Habakkuk was correct in his statement that Babylonians were more evil and arrogant than the people of Judah, but God has spoken.  You and I would be wise to ponder on God’s counsel to Habakkuk, but the righteous shall live by his faith.  Habakkuk and all who were righteous must live by faith.  God put the book of Hebrews in the Bible, so we could understand what faith is. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Often, we the created think God needs our counsel, but that’s wrong!  God does not need to explain his actions to His creation, no more than when I in my woodshop choose to use one lumber over another.  When we allow God to be God, and we trust in His goodness, His mercy, and recall the grace He has given to each of us when we find His ways challenging to understand. 

Jesus has some excellent counsel for each of us in Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice