| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Savor the time” Our Bible verse for today: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! The Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!” Habakkuk 3:17-19 (CSB) Our thought for today: “It will carry-over and carry you through” Yesterday in my personal study time I was reading from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk was a mysterious guy. We know virtually nothing about him. We don’t know where he came from or what his background was. All we know is that he was a prophet in the land of Judah during and after the time of good King Josiah in 609 B.C. After Josiah died things got bad. It was a time of trouble and turmoil in Judah. Habakkuk’s assignment from God was to inform the Jews that they’d better buckle their seat belts because as bad as things were, they were going to get worse, and it was all because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord as a nation. In the three short chapters of the book, Habakkuk had a message for the unfaithful ones – they were about to experience the consequences of their bad choices. But he also had a message for the faithful ones. He urged them to trust God and to live by faith. In 2:4 he wrote, “But the righteous one will live by his faith.” And then he concluded the prophecy with a declaration of his own faith that we read in 3:17-19 (above) – no matter how bad things got, he would continue to trust in the Lord and to live by faith. Where did Habakkuk’s strong faith come from? Since he was called by God to be a prophet, I think we can deduce that Habakkuk was a faithful man of God who had the long practice of going deep with God (as we’ve been thinking about in previous devotional messages). Habakkuk was already strong in the Lord and that strength, which was developed in better times (during the reign of good King Josiah), now carried over into the bad times and helped to carry him through. And likewise, where did the other faithful ones referred to in 2:4 get the strength of their faith that Habakkuk expected would carry them through the tough times? I think the answer must be the same. And for us? Yes, it’s the same answer. It’s those who are faithful and who have the habit of going deep with God in the good times, who are strong and ready to walk faithfully with Him through the tough times. I encourage you to savor your time with God today. Go deep with Him. Meet Him in the deep places and draw strength from Him, and do it every day. If you do, the strength and peace and confidence that the Lord develops in you with then carry-over and carry you through the tough times. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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