New Hope Oahu - Scripture Songs 11 Day DevotionalSample

"Remember Your Mercy”

SCRIPTURE:

Habakkuk 3:2,17-18 (NLT)

2 I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy.

17 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior 

OBSERVATION:

The prophet doesn’t even take a moment, not a second, to ask the Lord the first question that would be on my mind, “Why is this happening?”  He doesn’t ask why he is feeling sick, why calamity has come, why the crops have failed and the animals have died.  These would be the questions consuming my soul but not his.  No, Habakkuk asks the right question in the worst times and therefore has the right response.  Instead of panic he chooses to praise the God who will come to save him.  He hasn’t come yet, but by faith Habakkuk knows He will.  He even pictures himself climbing up the mountains like a deer even though he can’t even walk in that moment.  How is he able to respond with such calm in the face of such calamity?  Because, instead of asking, “Why are all these bad things happening?” he’s asking, “What is God doing in the midst of these bad things happening?”

APPLICATION:

When facing down insurmountable odds, the wrong question is, “How big is my enemy?”  The right question is, “How big is my God?”  This is what I observed Pastor Wayne doing when he discovered he had cancer.  I observed my father do the same thing.  Even before their surgeries, even before there was resolve or healing, these men of God in my life taught me the lesson of Habakkuk.  By asking the right question in the worst times they were saying, “Let me introduce this lower-case situation to my upper-case Savior.  Let me introduce this cancer to my Creator.  Let me introduce this disease to my Deliverer.”  I praise God that both of them are free of cancer today, but what about those who are still contending for their miracle?  The wrong question is, “How long is this going to take?”  The right questions is, “What has God promised He will do?”  How was Habakkuk able to stand strong?  He was standing on God’s promise as seen in Habakkuk 2:1-3- “1I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. 2 Then the Lord replied:  “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. 3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”

PRAYER:

I’m so challenged by the example of Habakkuk, Pastor Wayne, and my dad.  Will I rejoice before the resolve?  Will I sing before the salvation comes? Will I have hope before the healing?  Will I keep moving from the valley to the heights?  Will I wait with expectancy or waver in faith?  Not by my strength but through Yours, Jesus, I will see the impossible become possible.  I will see Your mercy in the land of the living!

Jonathan Burgess