Choose to Trust God

 

 

Let's delve into the words of Habakkuk 3:17-18 (ESV), a scripture that speaks of unwavering faith in the face of adversity.

 

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.

Devotion:

            These words from this prophet read as a total rejection of our modern culture. Habakkuk speaks of a deprivation most of us in this country cannot imagine. How does a person live with food deprivation and lack of all material comforts? It was not that long ago, in the 1930s, when the entire world was mired in an economic depression that caused massive shortages of food and other essentials. Such a scenario has yet to occur since. The question for us is: How can the writer rejoice in the face of such a disaster as he writes of in this passage?

            Today, even the poorest among us have more than the prophet had when things were good. The Internet, smartphones, and related technologies enable us to satisfy our wants and needs with the touch of a few buttons or by simply speaking commands into our devices. The world is literally at our fingertips. Those of us who follow Christ are not immune to the effects of modern technologies in our daily lives. Our modern “prophets” preach a gospel of health and wealth as being the ideal for God’s people. They seldom preach or probably even read these challenging words from Habakkuk.

            Our culture needs to hear this scriptural advice. Abundance and prosperity are not the norms of the human experience. Jesus proclaimed that we will always have people with low incomes among us, and it is a fact that as long as humans have recorded history, there have been those living with a shortage of supplies for their most urgent physical needs. Humans are complex animals, having many wants and needs, such as food, water, shelter, and other emotional, social, and spiritual needs and desires. Habakkuk is trying to help us see that our need for God is the greatest of all needs. It is more urgent than even the most pressing needs for our bodies.

            If we know and trust God fully, even our most pressing desires seem to pale in comparison. Many well-practiced people in the faith can go almost supernatural periods of time without food and water. Most of us will never attain that level of dependence on God. However, we must strive to depend on God more and more each day. Jesus went forty days without food in the wilderness before being tempted by the devil. He survived both the fast and the temptation because He had a deep knowledge of God’s word. Let us pray that we, too, would be that connected to God as our source no matter our outward circumstances.

Prayer:

Lord, help us always seek to connect with you. Help us live above our circumstances as your children in the world. Let us seek your face continually and trust you to supply our every need. Amen.