Look around: Libya… Gas prices… Dow Jones plunging… costs are going up while salaries stay the same or decreases… Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for the debt… plant and business lay off workers… ad infinitum.
Habakkuk 3:16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
The nation was about to be overrun by an invading army… not shooting cruise missiles… but with spears and swords. War was a lot closer… bloodier… and nasty than it is today. Battles took place at arm’s length rather than from miles apart or thousands of feet above. There was good reason for Habakkuk to be scared.
God does NOT promise: 1) A long healthy pain-free life, 2) That your family will be perfect, happy, and joyful, 3) That your business will always prosper, 4) That your children will be perfect… marry well… and have good children themselves, 5) That He will answer your prayers the way you want them answered. 6) That this life will be easy.
Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s; He makes me tread on my high places.
Surprise… life is hard. Bad things happen to everyone. Hardship is the norm for this world, not the exception. And God is still in control of it all. God promises to provide strength for all those who are His.
Suggestion… bury Habakkuk 3:17-19 deep into your soul. God may use it to strengthen you in the near future!