When You Feel Like Quitting
Trusting God No Matter What
When You Feel Like Quitting
Habakkuk 3
 
I wonder sometimes if America is making the same mistake that Israel did centuries before us. As the recipients of God’s grace and goodness, they took it for granted.  Instead of being thankful and obedient to God’s plan for their nation, they often took his blessing for granted and assumed that they were above judgment.
 
America has enjoyed some wonderful blessings and tremendous days, but today America is in trouble.  Evil is running rampant in our world.  Violence and crime fill the streets of our own nation.  Just this past Friday night, our high school band was not allowed to go to the game/leave the stands in Del City because of the violence in the area.
 
The tensions of war dominate the headlines every day.  And while the Ebola virus threatens millions in Africa, as many as 700 children in an El Paso hospital may have been exposed to tuberculosis.  Natural disasters are occurring at an alarming rate as we try to blame it on global warming and man-made influences.
 
I believe all of that the compounding evidence that there comes a time when judgment falls.  We use a lot of cute little phrases to describe what is happening like when the chickens come home to roost, when skeletons come out of the closet or when it’s time to pay the piper. But there is nothing cute or amusing or funny about the reality of God’s judgment.
And sooner or later we all face the consequences of the choices we have made. This is true for nations and it’s for individuals.
 
You cannot mock God forever, you cannot ignore him or pretend he isn’t there, you cannot do as you please without inviting judgment from on high. There is a time when judgment comes.
 
That sounds a lot like the day of Habakkuk. God had told him clearly: “Judgment is coming!” Now at last he understands the message. When we come to Habakkuk 3, we turn a corner in our study. The whole tone of the book changes. We move from confusion to clarity and from fear to faith. Here is the key observation on which the whole book turns:
 
Nothing has changed on the outside.
Habakkuk has changed on the inside.
 
There’s a lot of bad news in Habakkuk 1-2 but Habakkuk 3 is full of good news.  In fact, the book ends on a note of hope and praise.
 
So what causes that?  How did the prophet move from his initial worry and fear and misunderstanding about God to a place of confidence, joy and praise and trusting God? How did he get there when nothing around him has changed? The people are still mocking God, violence still fills the streets, and the Babylonians are still coming to Jerusalem. Outwardly everything is just as messed up as it was in the beginning.  Nothing has changed on the outside, yet Habakkuk the man has changed on the inside.  So how did that happen?
 
 
Chapter 3 gives us the answer.  The outline is very simple. Habakkuk 3 contains 3 things:
A prayer,
A vision and
A testimony
 
Let’s take them one at a time and see what we can learn from the prophet’s spiritual journey.  First let’s look at the
 
1. Prayer
 
Verse 2
 
In the face of impending judgment, the prophet prays for a demonstration of God’s power and for mercy in the midst of judgment. It’s as if he is saying, “Lord, I know bad times are coming. I accept that. I’m not fighting against your plan. But oh Lord, if hard times must come, don’t let the Babylonians wipe us out. Remember mercy or we will perish!”
 
I think that is a perfectly biblical prayer.  It’s honest.
It’s desperate and it’s the kind of prayer God will answer.
 
Notice that he asks God to do again in his day what he has done in the past. Notice he says, “I’ve heard about you.  I know what You’re like.  I heard the testimony of Your past behavior.  Then twice he says, “Do it now, Lord, in our day, in our time.”
 
I think that is a great way to approach the things in your life that you can’t understand and you can’t control.  Instead of immediately whining about how bad things are, take some time to reflect on God’s past activity.
Most of us don’t even have to look to Scripture to do that, although that’s a great thing to do.  For most of us and maybe all of us, God has been so good to us all we have to do is just think about that.  Certainly we can fill our thoughts and moments and days with testimony after testimony of God’s goodness and mercy and blessing on His people.
 
Every one of us have the privilege of saying, “God, I’ve heard about you!”  Then we have the right perspective on which to base our prayer.  IT is then we can say, “Oh God, do it again in our time, in our days, in our years!”
 
That ought to be the prayer of every thoughtful Christian at this critical moment of history. Think about what is going on in the Middle East as ISIS continues its reign of terror. No one seems to know how to stop these brutal thugs who kill in the name of Islam.
 
We are having American journalists beheaded.  They are not shy about announcing their plans to move on Europe and the United States. We truly live in dangerous times. When our own experts tell us that we are in more danger than before 9/11, we'd better wake up and pay attention.
 
And when I read this prayer of Habakkuk and think about what Judah was experiencing, I can’t help but think about where America finds herself at this moment in history.  There have been moments in recent history when American safety was threatened such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, but they were out of the ordinary events.
 
 
But since 9/11, we have lived with the constant awareness that America is no longer impervious to attack.  When those towers came tumbling down, any illusions of our safety fell with them.  We live in a day of terror warnings and the stark reality that what has been happening in the world for decades is now happening here.
 
There has developed over the years in America this arrogance that we are too mighty, too strong for our enemies to attack.  It has been fueled by the superiority of our military and the wisdom of our leaders and even by a misguided spiritual arrogance that we enjoyed the blessing and protection of God.
 
When Jerry Falwell declared the airplanes that struck the World Trade Center might well have been instruments in the hands of God to bring judgment on America, he was ridiculed and laughed at and even accused of blasphemy.  But his critics would have done well to read the book of Habakkuk.
 
There comes a day when God will no longer be mocked and the only solutions are either judgment or revival.  Every so often I hear people say we are on the brink of a great revival. Perhaps that is true. I certainly hope so. But I'm not sure about the timing.
 
When I read about the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the Layman’s Prayer Revival, and the 1904 Welsh Revival that spread around the world, it feels like stories from another planet.  God can certainly do whatever He chooses and I don’t want to rule that out.
 
 
But I don’t see any of the indicators in America that preceded the other Great Awakenings of history.
But that may actually be a good sign because revivals usually come in desperate times. You generally don’t receive a miracle until you desperately need one. It seems that God often will not move in power until things have fallen into dire straits.
 
If that is true, then I would say we are in a good place for a mighty move of God. I understand that revival is a sovereign work of God. He can move from heaven any time he wants. Fire comes down from above. It is not “worked up” from below. But if revival fire must come down from heaven, we can at least put the kindling in place.
 
There is an old Chinese prayer that goes like this: “O Lord, change the world. Begin, I pray thee, with me.” Or in the words of the old spiritual, “It’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”
 
My greatest challenge is the man in the mirror.  That’s where revival must begin. After his prayer Habakkuk has a
 
2. Vision
 
This vision is recorded in verses 3-15 and it contains what theologians call this a theophany. That’s a fancy term for an appearance of God on the earth. In this case, God revealed himself to Habakkuk in something like a dream or a vision. These verses are highly poetic, which is what you would expect when a man has a vision of God.
But the point is very clear. Knowing that his nation faces imminent judgment, Habakkuk prays, “Lord, do something!” This vision is God’s answer. It’s as if God says, “Habakkuk, you’ve forgotten who I am. You’re talking as if I can’t hear you. As if I don’t have any power. Let me show you who I am because if you understand who I am, you’ll be able to sleep at night.”
 
In verse 2, Habakkuk said, “I’ve heard the reports about You.”  Then in these following verses, he fills in some of the details of that report.  He sees some of that past activity in this vision, and it especially focuses on the Exodus out of Egypt, the wilderness wanderings and the crossing of the Jordan River.
 
That was a time when God repeatedly worked spectacular miracles. And as God brings all of that back to Habakkuk, He is saying, “Have you forgotten what I did for you in the past?”
 
Listen:  If he did it before, he can do it again.
Sometimes we read the Bible and secretly wonder if God can do it again in the 21st-century. Here is the answer. He can!  He’s God! He can intervene any time he wants.
 
Without reading the entirety of the vision, we catch a little of the flavor of it in verses 13-15 which focus on the defeat of Pharaoh at the Red Sea:
 
Verses 13-15
 
Look at the verbs: You went forth . . . You struck . . . You stripped . . . You thrust . . . You walked. This is what God did. He gets all the credit.
In fact, if I counted correctly, from verse 3-15 there are at least 30 different personal pronouns used to speak of God.  It’s all about Him.  He is the center of attention.  He gets the credit.  He receives the glory and honor.
 
Why is that so important?  It is because far too many people have not found a God big enough for their problems.  Listen:  If you had a bigger God, you wouldn’t worry as much.  If you had a bigger God, you would be stronger in the moment of crisis.  If you had a bigger God, you would be less tempted to compromise.
 
And in light of what is about to happen, Habakkuk desperately needed to know that the God of past was still on the throne and still able to handle what was going on in the world.   That’s why I love what he says in verse 16.  There we find his
 
3. Testimony
 
Verse 16
 
As we near the end of the book, the first thing we we see from Habakkuk is
 
  • acceptance
 
It’s as if Habakkuk says, “I get it, Lord. The Babylonians will attack us and then you will judge them. I accept that as your will and wait for that day to come.”
 
 
 
As it turns out, Habakkuk most likely didn’t live long enough because Babylon would not fall for almost 70 years but it doesn’t matter. Habakkuk’s words mean, “Message received.”  I get it, Lord!"
 
Second, there is
 
  • commitment
 
verses 17-18
 
There we find what faith looks like when life tumbles in around us.  Literally Habakkuk says, “I will jump for joy in the presence of the Lord.”
 
So how is that possible?
 
In these verses, Habakkuk describes a total economic meltdown. Ancient Israel was an agricultural society. If you ran out of figs, olives, grapes, grain, sheep, and cattle, you were in big trouble. This isn’t just a random list.
 
If this were written of God’s people today, their entire investment portfolio just got wiped out.  So what do you do when you are wiped out?  What if your investments disappear?  What would you do if tomorrow the stock market imploded? What if we had a repeat of 1929 and in a moment everything was gone? What would you do then?
 
Job gone.
Bank accounts gone.
Investments gone.
Pension destroyed.
401(k) wiped out.
What then?
How do you face that?
 
What if the safety net fails?
What if you run out of food?
What if you can’t pay your bills?
What if your children end up in jail?
What if your loved ones never come to Christ?
What if the doctor says, “It’s terminal”?
What if your spouse has a heart attack and you are left alone?
What if America falls to a foreign power?
What if you lose your job because you are a Christian?
What if you end up in jail for your faith?
What then?
 
Kay Warren is the wife of Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California and the author of the mega-bestseller The Purpose Driven Life. Rick and Kay were put in the spotlight in a very sad way last year when their 27-year-old son Matthew committed suicide after struggling for years with mental illness. In July Kay made some personal reflections on what would have been Matthew’s 29th birthday. Here is part of what she wrote:
 
On July 18, 1985, I gave birth to our beloved gift of God, Matthew David Warren. Holding him in my arms that morning, I had no idea how dark the journey would get for him - and for those who love him. All I knew that bright morning was that I was madly in love with him, and could see nothing ahead but a mother's dreams of a good life for her son.
 
 
 
I remember Easter 1985 - I was sick in bed, unable to go to church. Rick took the kids to church and I stayed by myself for a few hours - the TV remote by my side as my only companion. Somehow I dropped the remote and couldn't retrieve it - so there I was, alone on one of the most joyous holidays, with not even a TV preacher to keep me company, full of anxiety and fear for myself and my unborn child.
 
I painfully reached for my Bible and it fell open to Habakkuk 3: 17-19 (NIV): "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, 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."
 
This was a word from the Lord to me - and I determined that even IF my worst nightmares came true - if my baby died, or I never walked again - that I would trust in God my Savior; I would rejoice in the Sovereign Lord.
 
Matthew David Warren was born and everything seemed fine. But by his first birthday, we began to wonder. And by his second and third birthdays, we knew he wasn't like his older sister and brother. . . .
 
When he took his life last year - after battling and fighting so hard for decades - a friend sent me Habakkuk 3:17-19 in a sympathy card. She had no idea this passage was incredibly significant to me, but it was a fitting "bookend" to his life.
 
Because I had feared for years that he would take his life....it became his greatest pursuit and my deepest anguish.....I had to come to the point in which I said as I had 27 years before - "EVEN IF my worst nightmare comes true and he takes his life, I WILL rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my Savior."
 
So today - his 29th birthday - through weeping - I shout it to the watching universe: I will rejoice in Lord; I will be joyful in God my Savior. My heart remains wounded and battered, but my faith is steady. There is, and will be, as Steven Curtis Chapman says, a "glorious unfolding" of all that God has in store for me and my family. God is faithful to his promises of rebuilding and restoring the ruins - and I am confident that I will yet be a witness to many, many, many lives healed and hope restored - all because of my beloved gift of God, Matthew David Warren. I miss you, darling boy.....but it will just be for a little while.”
 
Too many Christians have a God of the good times. They serve God and love him and praise him when all is going well. But what will you do when hard times come? If all you have is a God of the good times, you don’t have the God of the Bible.
 
Sometimes the fig tree does not bud.
Sometimes there are no grapes on the vine.
Sometimes the olive crop fails.
Sometimes the fields produce no food.
Sometimes there are no sheep in the pen.
Sometimes there are no cattle in the stalls.
What do you do then? You can get angry with God or you can give up on God altogether.
Or you can choose to believe in God anyway. Often we mistake faith and our feelings. Faith isn't about my feelings, much less about my circumstances. Faith chooses to believe when it would be easier to stop believing. Habakkuk said, "I will wait patiently" and "I will rejoice." He found new strength in the midst of desolation.
 
The last verse of Habakkuk is often overlooked and I don’t want to do that.
 
Verse 19
 
I understand the phrase “my feet” to be a reference of the entirety of Habakkuk’s life.  He’s talking about everything he experiences on his journey through life.   And he says God will make my feet like deer’s feet. 
 
What is the primary illustration he is making by comparing his feet to the deer’s?  I think it is surefootedness.  The deer are sure-footed where the rest of us would slip and slide and eventually fall.
And Habakkuk says, “As I journey through life rejoicing in my Lord, I am surefooted because God is arranging the steps and preparing the paths.”
 
It is very reminiscent of Proverbs 3:5-6.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.
 
It reminds me of Ephesians 6:13 which says that when we put on the armor of God and “having done all,” we will stand safe and secure when the battle is over.
 
If you know the Lord, he will give you stability in the slippery moments of life. He will give you grace to stand when otherwise you would fall apart.
 
Let me repeat once again the single most important observation from Habakkuk. As the book ends, nothing has changed on the outside. The people of Judah have still forgotten God. Violence still reigns in Jerusalem. The wicked still oppress the righteous. And the Babylonians are still God’s appointed instrument for judgment. Hard times are coming and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
 
Nothing has changed!  Except this:
 
Habakkuk has changed on the inside.
We all come from different situations.
Some are happy, some are sad.
Some are healthy, some are sick.
Some are excited about the future, some face dark clouds of uncertainty.
 
But if we know the Lord, if God is our Savior, we can still have feet to tread on the heights in the worst moments of life. We can stand when others fall around us.
 
James Jeffries was an All-American at Baylor University during his college days.  But when in his 40’s, he was diagnosed with cancer.  He was addressing an FCA group when he said, "I've stood before you many times saying that Jesus Christ is all you need." He continued, "But you don't really know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have and when Jesus is all you have then you’ll know that Jesus is all you need."  That’s the real message of the little book of Habakkuk.