Please turn in your Bibles this morning to the book of Habakkuk, one of the Minor Prophets, as we reflect back on the Thanksgiving holiday we just celebrated. Over the past few years there was much to be thankful for. The Stock Market was at an all time high, people were making lots of money from it. The jobless rate, unemployment was down. People had money to buy all kinds of things or at least they had credit cards to buy things with. The Banking industry was solid, making lots of money. The automobile industry was making bigger and bigger cars and people were buying them. The housing industry was growing like crazy. People were selling their homes for extremely high costs. Life was good. There was so much to be thankful for!
Then came the year 2008 and what a mess it has been. The Stock Market has lost over 40% of its value in the last year. The retirement fund’s for those who were planning on retiring or are retired has lost millions of dollars for some. It is so bad that some have had to go back to work! Their retirement funds have been depleted to a weekend fund! The unemployment rate has hit a 16-year high and it seems like that is only going to get worse! The bottom fell out of the housing market. Houses are not selling and if they sell they are selling far below what they were bought for a few years ago!
Banks and mortgage institutions are in trouble because they have made loans to people that should have never gotten loans and now they can’t pay them back and the banks had to be bailed out by the government so they won’t go under. The big three automakers came before Congress to ask for a bail out or they will go under and they had the nerve to ask for more money as they arrived on their own private jets! And, sorry to say, it looks like things are going to get a lot worse!
Thus, many people today, as we just celebrated Thanksgiving, are not very thankful but are angry, they are mad, they are very frustrated and worried about what is going to happen. Thus, I have called this study, “HOW CAN I BE THANKFUL?” In other words, with the mess we are in, how in the world can anyone be thankful.
Folks, it all boils down to this, how you look at things, the perspective you have of the situation. Looking at it through the eyes of man, focusing on all that is happening, it is easy to be unthankful. And we do see that today, even among some Christians, maybe some of you. But, if your perspective changes from focusing on the situation and now it is upon Almighty God, there is plenty to be thankful for, as we will see this morning.
Let me show you what I mean with this story on perspective. We are told:
In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man is incredulous, [he is unconvinced], but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat-- only the nine of us."
- George Mikes, How to be Decadent
You see, perspective is everything, get rid of the goat! Now I don’t think we realize all we do have because many times we are focused on what we don’t have. Now, as I was praying about this study on thanksgiving the Lord brought me to the book of Habakkuk. Now I do have to admit, of all the places in the Bible to do a study on thanksgiving, this is not one of them. At least I didn’t think so.
Let me give you a little background information for this book and as you will see, things are not looking good for the Southern Kingdom of Judah. In fact, it is really bad! The time frame of this book seems to be around the reign of King Jehoiakim, who ruled the Southern Kingdom of Judah from 609 to 598 BC.
Jehoiakim was an evil king, an ungodly leader who ruled for 11 years and he continued the downward spiral of the nation away from God. This downward spiral began with the reign of Manasseh, the son of a godly king, Hezekiah. But Manasseh didn’t follow in the footsteps of his father. He was evil. This downward spiral continued until the Babylonians finally brought the Southern Kingdom of Judah into captivity in 586 BC, when Zedekiah was the king in Judah.
Yes, there was one bright spot and that was King Josiah who tried to bring reform to the nation, to bring them back to God, but it was too little too late! The wickedness, the evil, the corruption, the idolatry of the leaders, the priests and the people in Judah was now going to be dealt with by God! That is the situation that Habakkuk faced, the situation he found himself in, the struggles that were before him and I believe it is similar to what we are going through today. Thus, there are lessons we can learn from him. With that said, let’s see what God taught him so that we too might have hearts of thankfulness unto the Lord!
In Habakkuk 1:1-4 we are told, “The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. O Lord, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ And You will not save. 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. Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.”
The name “Habakkuk” means “one who embraces,” and that is interesting to me. At this point he is embracing the situation that he is facing but by the time we get to the end of the book he will be embracing the Lord. And folks, that is who we are to embrace instead of the situations we are facing. He needs to be the strength of our life, He needs to carry us through, we need to trust in Him and walk by faith. Thus, we need to embrace Him!
But, when a person is not embracing God he will complain, just as we see here with Habakkuk. As Habakkuk looks at the Southern Kingdom of Judah, as he looks at his people, he sees the evil that is manifested in their lives. The nation was not only in a spiritual decay, but that spiritual decay lead the people into a moral decay. The depravity of the people, their wickedness, their evil, their violence, was rampant and the conclusion that Habakkuk came to was that God is not answering his prayer; He is not doing anything about the situation. And Habakkuk is not happy about that!
This may sound familiar to you, because I believe it is what we are seeing in our nation today. Our nation has been in a spiritual decline for years now and that has now brought about a moral depravity that is shocking to some of us! Just as Habakkuk felt a sea of evil surrounding him, don’t you feel the same way? I do! Just as Habakkuk felt that God was not doing anything about it, maybe that is how some of you feel this morning. Folks, God is always working, never forget that. We might not see what He is doing at the present time, we might not like what He is doing, or will do, but He is working, as we will see here with Habakkuk!
In Habakkuk 1:5-11 the Lord is going to speak and the Lord is basically telling Habakkuk, “Hold onto your hat Habakkuk, you ain’t seen nothing yet!” In other words, God was working but not according to what Habakkuk wanted and not in his time frame. Thus, we are told, “Look among the nations and watch — Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god.”
God is going to judge His people by a nation that was more wicked than they were, the Babylonians. This nation was growing stronger. They would defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC. Thus, instead of deliverance God was going to judge His people for their sin!
God told Habakkuk that He would not believe what was going to happen and Habakkuk responded by basically saying, “I can’t believe you are going to do that!” In Habakkuk 1:12 we are told, “Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction.” In other words, he can’t believe that God would use a nation more wicked than they were to judge the people of God by. Why would God do that? Because where much is given, much is required. God entrusted the oracles of God, the Words of God with them and yet, they turned from Him!
Folks, our nation was founded upon God, the true and living God and not many gods! They came here so they could freely worship the true and living God! The laws that were made were based upon the Jewish-Christian principles. The Government was also based upon that. And yet, look at where we are at today. We seem to follow what took place in the Southern Kingdom of Judah and God brought His judgment upon them for their sin!
Am I saying that all that is happening today in this nation, how it seems to be unraveling right before our eyes, falling apart, is a judgment of God! It could be, we do deserve it. I know, great Thanksgiving message. Don’t you want to just jump up and down and spin around and praise the Lord? Maybe not yet, but by the time we finish, you should!
Maybe you are afraid of what is happening in our country, as Habakkuk was afraid in his day. As He heard what God said we are told of his response in Habakkuk 3:1-2, “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth. O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.”
Obviously this was overwhelming for Habakkuk and thus, he brings it to God in prayer. And he prays for God to keep working, to never stop working, to keep the work alive in the hearts of the people, in the heart of the nation. What a great prayer for us to pray! And yes, judgment was coming, God told Habakkuk that and thus, Habakkuk asks God to remember His mercy on His people. That too is a great prayer for our nation! For Habakkuk, he is taking a position of faith even though he didn’t always understand what was going on before him. He was trusting God. In fact, you might say he was now embracing God instead of the situation!
When you see all that is going on in this nation does it overwhelm you? Bring it to God as Habakkuk did. Pray that God would revive this nation once again, that He would work in the hearts and lives of the people of this nation. Yes, it would seem judgment is coming, but Lord, season it with your mercy! That is my prayer.
I would like to share this story with you this morning, it is a little long but it will show you that we may not always know what is going on, but God is working and we need to trust in Him no matter what comes our way. It is the story of David and Svea Flood, and you may remember it, but it is one of the stories that most of us will never face and yet we will embrace the situation we face many times instead of the Lord and that is not good. We are told:
Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa-to what was then called the Belgian Congo. They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Erickson’s, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to set out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area.
This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N’dolera they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts’.
They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. The only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood-a tiny woman only four feet, eight inches tall-decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded. But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Erickson’s decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to go on alone.
Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina. The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days. Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven-year-old wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Erickson’s, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself. Within eight months both the Erickson’s were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. The baby was then turned over to some American missionaries, who adjusted her Swedish name to “Aggie” and eventually brought her back to the United States at age three.
This family loved the little girl and were afraid that if they tried to return to Africa, some legal obstacle might separate her from them. So they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. And that is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota. As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. There she met and married a young man named Dewey Hurst.
Years passed. The Hurst’s enjoyed a fruitful Ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there.
One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course she couldn't read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD. Aggie jumped in her car and went straight for a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. “What does this say?” she demanded. The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N’dolera long ago ... the birth of a white baby ... the death of the young mother ... the one little African boy who had been led to Christ ... and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ... the children led their parents to Christ... even the chief had become a Christian. Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village.... All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood. For the Hursts’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden.
There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: “Never mention the name of God- because God took everything from me.” After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. “You can talk to him,” they replied, “even though he’s very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage.” Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed.
“Papa!”" she said tentatively. He turned and began to cry. “Aina,” he said. “I never meant to give you away.” “It’s all right, Papa,” she replied, taking him gently in her arms. “God took care of me.” The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped. “God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him.” He turned his face back to the wall. Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted. “Papa, I’ve got a little story to tell you, and it’s a true one. You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life. ... Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you.” The old man turned back to look into his daughter’s eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades. Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America-and within a few weeks; David Flood had gone into eternity.
A few years later, the Hurst’s were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London, England, when a report was given from the nation of Zaire (the former Belgian Congo). The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the gospel’s spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood. “Yes, madam,” the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. “It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother’s grave and her memory are honored by all of us.” He embraced her in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, “You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history.” In time that is exactly what Aggie Hurst and her husband did. They were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle.
The most dramatic moment, of course, was when the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother's white cross for herself. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks. Later that day, in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” He then followed with Psalm 126:5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”
As you listen to that story, it truly is sad. I am not negating all that this man lost, the pain he was going through. The thing we must remember is that God was working, He did not forget them, but He was doing a great work. David couldn’t see all that God was doing and folks, God wasn’t interested in that. God wanted David to trust in Him in the midst of this crisis in his life. He wanted David to cling to Him or to embrace Him instead of the situation. We can never know and understand all the how’s and why’s of God, but we need to trust in Him. And folks, we can let these things make us bitter and live out our lives angry with God or we can allow them to make us better and even though the weight of persecution and trials are heavy upon us, as we are crushed the fragrance of Jesus will flow from us. You see, how you respond will determine how you will smell! Remember, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
For Habakkuk, the judgment of God was coming upon the Southern Kingdom of Judah for their sin and refusal to turn back to God. How will Habakkuk now respond to this situation? Will he embrace the situation or Almighty God? Look at what we are told in Habakkuk 3:16, “When I heard, my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; And I trembled in myself, That I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, He will invade them with his troops.”
That sounds like he is embracing the situation and not the Lord. How can a man of faith act like that? Folk’s, God never calls us to be stoic, without feelings. He wants us to trust in Him but He also understands the pain, the hurt, the anguish we feel over the situations we face. That does not mean we lack faith but we feel the pain of the situation in our lives! For Habakkuk, he was overwhelmed by what was coming because he loved his people, he loved his nation and he realized the judgment of God was coming upon them. And yes, he is amazed, astonished by what the Lord has told him but this prophet has grown. He has grown since the book opened up and folk’s, that is what God desires in our lives, that we would grow in Him, trust in Him more and more, embrace Him!
How do I know that he grew? Listen carefully to what he wrote in Habakkuk 3:17-19, “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 — Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 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.”
These were not empty words by Habakkuk. This would take place as God brought His judgment upon the Southern Kingdom of Judah. There would be famine, starvation; it would be a horrible time, a dark time. In fact, Jeremiah, as he witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, as he sat upon the hillside watching Jerusalem burning, he wrote in Lamentations 4:4-11, “The tongue of the infant clings To the roof of its mouth for thirst; The young children ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them. Those who ate delicacies Are desolate in the streets; Those who were brought up in scarlet Embrace ash heaps. The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people Is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, Which was overthrown in a moment, With no hand to help her! Her Nazirites were brighter than snow And whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, Like sapphire in their appearance. Now their appearance is blacker than soot; They go unrecognized in the streets; Their skin clings to their bones, It has become as dry as wood. Those slain by the sword are better off Than those who die of hunger; For these pine away, Stricken for lack of the fruits of the field. The hands of the compassionate women Have cooked their own children; They became food for them In the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord has fulfilled His fury, He has poured out His fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, And it has devoured its foundations.”
Not a great time at all. A horrible judgment of God upon them and thus, what will Habakkuk do, how will he respond to the fig tree not bringing forth any blossoms, that there is no fruit on the vine, that the olive production has failed, the fields not yielding any food, that the flock is cut off, that there are no herds in the stalls? That is not good and yet, that is what they would face. Look at what he said, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:18.
This verse can literally be translated like this, “I will jump for joy in the LORD; I will spin around for delight in God.” Do you know what would happen today if you did that? You would be locked up because people would think you were crazy, but Habakkuk was not crazy, not at all. He learned to trust the Lord. Yes, he started out trying to figure out what God was doing and then he began to grow, he learned to walk by faith, trusting in the Lord. And it was that relationship; as he embraced the Lord that he could jump up and down for joy, spin around not in his strength or in himself or his plan but in the Lord!
Please understand that he was not rejoicing in the judgment, but in the Lord, that God was working, that God hadn’t forgot and thus, he trusted in the promises of God, that God would fulfill His promises to the nation of Israel, they will not get wiped out, God will remember mercy in His judgment! Thus, God is breaking them of their sin not to destroy them but to restore them back to Him. Thus, He is able to say in Habakkuk 3:19, “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.” Habakkuk thought of the deer running about on the high hills, never losing a step and never falling. More than that, the deer positively dance and leap on the hills - they are full of life and joy. So the prophet declares, “God will set my steps that firmly and lively also. As I trust in Him, He will not allow me to slip or fall, and I will do more than merely plod along - I will skip about with life and joy.” How about you?
William MacDonald says of these verses, “ . . . The world system is a monstrous scheme of temptation, always trying to drag us away from God and from what is eternal, and seeking to occupy us with what is temporary and sensual. People of the world are completely taken up with the things of time and sense. They have become the victims of passing things. Only the man who is born of God really overcomes the world, because by faith he is able to rise above the perishing things of this world and to see things in their true, eternal perspective. Thus the one who really overcomes the world is not the great scientist or philosopher or psychologist, but the simple believer who realizes that the things which are seen are temporary and that the things which are not seen are eternal. A sight of the glory of God in the face of Jesus dims the glory of this world.”
If you feel there is nothing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and this year, you are wrong. You have the Lord, be thankful for Him and in Him. And if there is nothing else you can think of, I would challenge you on that one. Get a piece of paper and start writing down all you do have. There is your family, friends, a place to live, food on the table, a job, a roof over your head, your church family and-so-on. You see, it is easy to miss out on the blessings of God and not be thankful because we are not looking.
I like what David wrote in Psalm 61:1-4, “Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.” God is for us and He wants to lift us up, if we would only look to Him, trust in Him as Habakkuk learned to!
Let me share with you a few Scriptures that deal with thankfulness and as Christians, we should have a heart overflowing with thankfulness. Paul reminds us very clearly in I Thessalonians 5:18, “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Isn’t that interesting, it is God’s will for our lives that we are thankful!
Paul tells us in II Thessalonians 2:13, “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” Here he is saying that it is our duty to give thanks to God for all He has done, is doing and will do in our lives, for the brothers and sisters in the Lord He has brought into our lives!
In Psalm 116:17 we are told, “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the Lord.” In other words, thanksgiving is our spiritual service unto the Lord. It is what should flow from our lives.
Now, if you doubt that, then listen to the last one I want to share with you from Revelation 7:11-12, where we are told, “All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’” Folks, heaven is not only a place where we will worship the Lord but it is also a place that is filled with thanksgiving unto Him for all He has done in our lives. Thus, we might as well get into the habit of thanking God down here because it will be the normal part of our life in heaven, having a heart filled with thanksgiving that will overflow from our lips!
As I begin to close this morning, listen to this story that will help put it all into perspective. We are told:
A young woman named Anne Steele had encountered one trial and disappointment after another. Being a devout Christian, she continuously sought to praise God—even in sorrow. She was engaged to be married, and had looked forward to her wedding day with eagerness. The big day finally arrived and so did the guests—but the groom was missing. After about an hour of waiting, a messenger brought the tragic news that Anne’s fiancé had drowned. The sudden shock was almost too much for her, but after a while she regained her spiritual composure.
Later Anne Steele penned the song that is still found in many hymnbooks:
Father,
whate’er of earthly bliss Thy sovereign will denies,
Accepted at Thy throne of grace, let this petition rise:
Give me a calm, a thankful heart, from every murmur free!
The blessings of Thy grace impart, and make me live to Thee.
- Our Daily Bread, April 29
Folks, I don’t’ know all that is coming for this nation and for us individually and as a church, but I do know this, we need to be thankful unto the Lord for all He has done, is doing and will do in our lives. He is still working. It may not be easy but that should not change our perspective of the situation because the Lord is still the same. May we learn the perspective that Habakkuk learned and be able to say as he said, “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 — Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 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.” Habakkuk 3:17-19.
You see, God doesn’t always change the circumstances of life, but He can change us to meet the challenge of those circumstances if we allow Him to! That is what it means to live by faith. Habakkuk trusted in the LORD, YAHWEH was his strength and it is the Lord who will give him the victory. It is the Lord who will give him the help so that he can walk. God wants to do the same for you. You see, God still reigns and His purposes and plans will be established. May we learn to walk by faith and not by sight, trusting in Him no matter what we are going through. To run to His high tower so we might have a correct perspective of the situation. If you do, if you can look to Him no matter how dark things may look right now, then you will be able to say what Habakkuk said! Thus, may we have hearts filled with thankfulness unto the Lord.
I started out this morning saying, “HOW CAN I BE THANKFUL?” That is simple, by embracing the Lord and when you do, you will overflow with thanksgiving! As this year comes quickly to an end, may it be filled with thanksgiving and as we approach the New Year, may we also begin and end it with hearts filled with thanksgiving as we embrace the Lord!