The scripture for today, March 19, is Habakkuk 3:19 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
”The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.”
The little book of Habakkuk was written during a period when the leaders were oppressing the poor. Habakkuk complains to God, “Why do you tolerate wrong?”. God answers that he’s getting ready to put an end to it. Not satisfied, Habakkuk pretty much asks the same question again. God tells him to put in writing (a prophecy) of what God plans to do to the oppressors.
That done, Habakkuk’s faith is renewed. His faith is strong again. So strong that he feels as though he is “on the heights.”
Everyone grows impatient when leaders are doing wrong. But we must understand that we see just part of the problem, and that God is waiting until the right time to put an end to it ~ a time when people are so desperate with helplessness that even unbelievers can’t help but know God intervened.
So when times come in your own life when everything seems to be going wrong, read the little book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament and know that God is still in control, he has not forgotten you, and he has special plans for you.
” ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’ “
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
“But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles….”
“Are not all angels ministering spirits, sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”
“And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: Bearing fruit in every good work; Growing in the knowledge of God.”