As I read the closing chapter of Habakkuk, It is a prayer to God from the prophet. Keep the cyle in mind...since it is significant. The prophet carried the questions/complaints that they had to God (Ch 1). They wanted to know why evil existed and why unrighteous people prospered while God sat silent. God answered him and told him that He was working a plan that the prophet could not see (Ch 2). He told him that the "righteous shall live by faith" (Hab 2:4) in God KNOWING that God was in control and at work.
Hab 3:1-2 is a prayer of petition. In other words, God grant this request. Paraphrased: "Lord I know of your work in the past. Do it again in the present day. In the midst of your pouring out wrath, be merciful as well."
Hab 3:3-15 is a picturesque depiction of the power of God at work. One commentator noted that much of Israel's theology was built on God actions. It is no surprise then that God's activity of bringing justice would be in the forefront here. The picture is of a mighty God working to bring about His determined conclusion. It is the opposite of the charge that Habakkuk made in chapter 1 that God sat silent while unrighteousness ran unchecked.
Hab 3:16-19 concludes the chapter. In Hab 3:16 we see the revelation of the prophet. He is downcast...knowing that the day of trouble is not over and that God will answer in His own timing. He knows that the redemption from the Assyrians will not be an ultimate deliverance for the people. In other words...He is not at all confused at the fact that while he prays for mercy, God is going to answer according to His own plan and purpose. This is key and speaks to a prayer life and our response to God.
When we pray...at times we pray with expectations of how God should answer us. We pray with an agenda. Yes we are to make our requests known to God in faith; however, we are not to expect that God is somehow obligated to answer our prayers in our way. God is God. His ways are above ours. He knows better than we. While we may desire a particular outcome...we are also called to settle in our heart, BY FAITH, that God is good and will answer according to His wisdom and not our own. As such, we should come to rest in confidence that God is in control. This is the thrust of the closing verses in Hab 3:17-19. Paraphrased: "Though we may not expereince relief as we see it, and it may appear that God has not given us what we desired, Yet I will still rejoice in Him. He has given me (instead) the strength and security to stand in the midst of all of my struggles. In the throes of my clamity...He blesses and cares for me."
Proverbs 8:20-21 is the takeaway today. In the verse, the speaker is "wisdom personified." Wisdom says that she always walks in the way of righteousness and justice to endow those who love her with wealth. When you take this in context...you see something like Solomon's experience with God. He could ask for anything but requested wisdom. In doing so, He was granted wisdom and was given wealth to boot (1 King 3:5,9-14). We are called to desire to be wise and discerning. If our desire is for the fruit (wealth) we fail. When we desire to live wisely, we are granted that and God blesses in addition.
Tomorrow, I will move back to the New Testament. See you in 1 Thessalonians.
Grace,
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Your comments about prayer touched on my biggest question for the last few YEARS. Where is the line between praying in faith, believing we have received what we have asked for in prayer; and presuming upon God? I'm good with the fact that He's in control, His ways are not our ways and all that. I know that He answers prayer. I watch Him do it all the time. I know that He CAN, but I don't know that He WILL, so how can I pray believing I have received like Matthew 21:21-22 says we're supposed to? If I don't believe He will, am I really praying in faith? And if I'm not praying in faith, how can I expect him to answer (James 1: 6 - 7). I wish I could figure that one out.
Thanks for the intel on where we're going tomorrow! :)
Others may have some insights. I certainly do not have the market covered on this! I did some pretty intense studies on prayer warriors and their ministries a couple of years ago (particularly as they relate to the outpouring/movement of God/ revival). Out of that study, I noticed that my own prayer life changed.
I began to ask questions of people who asked for prayer. I would seek to look beyond the surface issues for root causes. I wanted to find how God was already at work and what I thought would bring Him glory. This allowed me to see prayer more as a conversation than a time of request/petition.
It became really hard because I would be in a hospital with a family wanting me to pray for "uncle Bob" to get better when he was 90 years old, saved, and ready to go to heaven. I began to pray "discerning." Not that I am so spiritual that I believe I hit it every time...but there are times when I am quite comfortable not praying for someone's son to be released from jail; rather, I would pray for God to use the "jail" experience to break through to them and for the family to seek God's hand at work more than a reunion with their incarcerated Son.
My confidence/faith in praying then was that I had understood the will/heart of God in the matter and that He would bring it to pass.
On the times that I cannot "discern," I simply pray that God would show me His work in the process.
Not sure if it helps.
Grace,
Nope, didn't help, but thanks for trying. :) I don't think there's an answer to my question. It's probably one of those His thoughts are higher than my thoughts things, but I still think about them. It gives my poor husband a headache. :)
What you said makes sense. Then there are other times when you do know the heart/will of God but don't know what He'll do. i.e....My friend asked me to pray for God to save her family. Her husband has left her and their children. I know it's God's will for that family to be intact (God hates divorce, right?) AND I know it's God's will for them to know HIM, which would ultimately fix their problems anyway, but I don't know if He'll save their family or them. I know that human will is part of the equation because we have free will, but God could change that husband's heart. He could appear to him in the road and blind him, or talk to him through a donkey, or whatever it takes to get through to that man. But will He? I don't know. So, if I don't KNOW, then am I not praying in faith? I'm back to the I know He CAN, but I don't know He WILL. I don't expect you to answer. If you had an answer for this one, I'd just give you another one. :)
Let me take a stab anyway. :-)
God can do anything (potentially) but has limited Himself in some ways. In other words...God has already settled the human freewill issue. He has the ability to do a "Jedi mind trick" on someone and fix them...but has limited Himself in such a way that He does not do so.
Does God hate divorce? Yes. Not because He hates us...but because of the pain and suffering it causes to others and because of what it does to the institution that God gave in the Covenant of Marriage.
You said it: "I know it's God's will for them to know HIM, which would ultimately fix their problems anyway, but I don't know if He'll save their family or them."
Certainly we don't know what God will do in each situation. We are not praying a "stacked deck" sort of prayer. We are asking God to work according to His will. We pray in FAITH knowing that He is able to work and will work according to our prayer. We are believing that the outcome is consistent with God's will. We just don't know whether the man will yield to God.
So...PRAY that God would save the family because it is His expressed desire/will to do so. Then...be at peace (by faith) that He has acted according to His will...even if the man rejects God's activity in His life.
OK. Still not much to go on. Maybe have to settle with a mystery of God. Or.....
I get what you're saying. I totally know that when we pray, He is able and will answer according to His will. I have no doubt about that. My question is how to pray specifically and BIG and know it will happen..... Like "move mountain" in Matthew 21. That puts me right back to where's the line between believing God and presuming upon Him?
Anyway, let me tell you what happened with all this yesterday. When I first started to post my last response, I had a list of examples, but then I decided to go specifically with the one I did for some reason. :) Afterward, I kept thinking and talking about it with the Lord all morning. Then yesterday afternoon my friend called to tell me MORE JUNK about her whole ordeal. Then she said, "So, what do you think, is there any hope?" I totally knew what to say to her for once because I had been thinking and praying about it all morning. I've been praying for wisdom and the words to say to her. Yesterday, God prepared me ahead of time with this rabbit trail. :) Of course I told her, "ABSOLUTELY....
Post a Comment