They are to me sometimes. I’m soo much like Peter in the Bible when he saw Jesus walking on the water. Jesus held out His hand to Peter & Peter stepped out of the ship, started taking the steps & then STARTED LOOKING AROUND AT CIRCUMSTANCES! Don’t sit there and make out like you don’t! Or, at least~I DO!
I’ve noticed here lately, that my compassion button has been kicked off~or maybe the current isn’t full strength running to it. It’s low enough that I’m noticing it. I’m missing that component that I thought that I used to have. I started questioning it & realized that it’s out of fear. What fear you asked? Here’s my list:
a) Betrayal
b) Bad seems to be tsunami strength
c) Disappointment
d) Hardships
e) Overwhelming sense of “what’s the use?”
f) Our government out of control
g) Are we going to be able to pay our bills?
h) My children are where I’d like to see them
i) I’m getting old & what have I accomplished in life?
j) I’m afraid of being alone
Any of these sound familiar to you? Maybe yours is a WHOLE other list of “fears”.
So I wake up this morning & as a LAST resort (*rolling my eyes at myself) get in my Bible. I SERIOUSLY tell The Lord that I’m sick of this feeling being gone. I take some time to reflect, because in my business, I KNOW you can’t separate physical from emotional & I have to get downright honest with Him. I say, “Daddy (I learned this yesterday from someone who was giving the translation from Greek) “I just realized that I do not have faith in You like I once did. It’s dwindled & I’m running on low. I don’t have compassion like I once did. The reason is: I feel like you’ve allowed me to be so hurt and SO letdown, that I just don’t “trust” you like I did. (Not that I have lost my salvation~but that my confidence in Him has dwindled). I want some answers, and I need some renewal or reminder of what I once had.” Within minutes, I had my answer.
“Circumstances” led me to Romans 1:17 ….”The just shall live by faith”. I asked The Lord, “But what if I have no faith left?! What if, after all my faith, You allow me to be hurt again? I feel I can stand NOT ONE MORE HURT!” Then the little reference at the bottom led me to Habakkuk. A short, small, brief but HUGE Book of the Bible near the end of the Old Testament. YOU HAVE to go read it! Will take maybe 5 minutes to read the whole thing. Here’s a brief overview:
a) Habakkuk was a prophet
b) He had a problem with the way things were going in his country:
1) Violence against his people
2) Grief
3) Fighting
4) Wicked prospering
5) No consequences for the wicked at all
6) Drunkenness leading to sexual sins
7) Idols
His biggest problem? The Lord letting it all go on and seemingly not doing anything about it!
Does this sound familiar to any of you? Wow. Seems as if~ there are no consequences for the wickedness going on in our government. In our communities, it seems as if the most dishonest are the ones that prosper and get by with EVERYTHING! Well, you know what I mean. You live in this world.
God’s answers to Habakkuk was: “I’ve got this. When the “time is right” I will ….Habakkuk 1:5 “Behold ye (*watch & learn, He’s saying) among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. “
Again in Habakkuk 2:4”…but the just shall live by his faith.” Again, we hear this. Just DO it because God has everything worked out for this whole world but we HAVE to choose FAITH. Choose it. Will it. Search for it. Think about it. Pray it. Ask for it. Dig for it. Scratch for it right in your handy dandy hand book~ your Bible.
Habakkuk summed it up for me at the end of the book: I’m putting it in poetic form. Verses 17-19. I think it’s beautiful:
Although the fig tree shall not blossom,
Neither shall fruit be in the vines:
The labor of the olive shall fail,
And the fields shall yield not meat:
The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
And there shall 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,
And he will make my feet like hinds’ fee,
And he will make me to walk upon mine high places.
What are “hinds’ feet”?
According to cortright.org
A hind is a mother deer that lives in the mountains of the Bible lands. The hind is one of the most sure footed animals in the world. When she goes up the side of the mountain she uses her front feet to test for loose stones on the slope. When she finds firm ground she then places her back feet in the exact spot that her front feet were placed. If she did not test the rocky incline with her front feet, the loose stones would cause her to slip and fall down the mountain. The young deer follow their mother step by step placing their feet exactly where the mother hind had placed her feet. This exact tracking means life to both the hind and her young. God’s Word is like the mother hind to us. The Word is sure, tried and tested. If we will stand on the solid ground tested by God’s Word and place our feet where the Word has set its feet we too will be set upon our high places and never fall.
Isn’t that beautiful? When EVERYTHING seems doomed & hopeless. When it seems that there’s NOTHING left to hope for or to work with, He WILL be there with rewards & joy in the end.
I’m satisfied with that. My prayer is that you will be, too!
If you’d like to visit some more with me…go to my facebook page: HERE