Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I pray as you go through your week that you will choose the behaviors of faith from yesterday’s message, “What Faith Does.”
Re-read Habakkuk 3:16-19:
I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
We see in this passage:
Faith Rests
Faith Rejoices
Faith Receives strength to go to higher ground!
Wait on God. Don’t create an Ishmael when God wants to give you an Isaac. Delay is not denial, and the passing of time doesn’t diminish the promise of God!
Rejoicing is an attitude you can choose! Living by faith means your relationship with God is more important than any earthly provision or comfort. It means that when provisions or comforts are stripped from you, you can still rejoice when you possess Jesus. Faith doesn’t rejoice because of what it seens but because of who God is!
Habakkuk made a great shift in his thinking from verse 16 to verse 19 of chapter 3. His faith stabilized him! In verse 16 he basically described a panic attack.
But what happened when he made the decision to rest in the Lord and rejoice in God alone? He received strength to think that not only would he get through it, but that he would be sustained to the point where he would land up on the heights!
Resting, rejoicing, and receiving Christ as Savior in order that you might receive the strength to rise above life’s challenges. That’s what faith does!
Make it a faith-filled week!
Pastor Melissa
