The Righteous Shall Live By Faith
This morning God took me to Habakkuk and i was encouraged as I watched him ask God... How long will wicked prosper? and God answers! Of course, He says He'll use even worse wickedness to destroy them (not the comforting part). Then Habakkuk asks why God would use "really" bad people to destroy the "kinda bad" people... And God answers again! Praise God He is not silent to the "why?" questions we ask!
God answers by saying, "The righteous shall live by faith." Today, that made perfect sense to me. We can't understand His ways because we aren't Him... so joy comes by trusting that He does know and understand ALL that He is doing! We live and hope by faith in our loving and compassionate God in times that seem contrary trusting as we cling to Him that these times show that we believe and that HE is indeed our Supreme treasure!
I thought of friends who have just gone through HARD times and some about to face them. In my own family there were many really good things to celebrate this year (Caleb, weddings, getting to report to Jesus Film). And yet some really hard things (losing Gam, almost losing our job, not getting paid for months, our family all living really far away)
Today as I read, I was praying that God would strengthen us, so that like Habakkuk (while facing losing crops to live on and family and even his own life) we could say:
"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places."
I am confident that He will strengthen you as well to rest in faith in Him, in all things, to His glory.
God answers by saying, "The righteous shall live by faith." Today, that made perfect sense to me. We can't understand His ways because we aren't Him... so joy comes by trusting that He does know and understand ALL that He is doing! We live and hope by faith in our loving and compassionate God in times that seem contrary trusting as we cling to Him that these times show that we believe and that HE is indeed our Supreme treasure!
I thought of friends who have just gone through HARD times and some about to face them. In my own family there were many really good things to celebrate this year (Caleb, weddings, getting to report to Jesus Film). And yet some really hard things (losing Gam, almost losing our job, not getting paid for months, our family all living really far away)
Today as I read, I was praying that God would strengthen us, so that like Habakkuk (while facing losing crops to live on and family and even his own life) we could say:
"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places."
I am confident that He will strengthen you as well to rest in faith in Him, in all things, to His glory.
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M Jo Ellen Keeton