Has anyone ever said to you don’t be sad it’s not that bad?
Or perhaps cheer up worse things happen at sea!
Or are you yourself one of those people that is pretty much always happy?
Do you feel like rejoicing when things are going wrong?
I know I struggle to want to rejoice when things are going wrong.
In the first two chapters of Habakkuk, we have read and spoken about who things we not going well for the Israelites. Habakkuk felt that God wasn’t responding to his prayers.
Then God did respond but Habakkuk was surprised to say the least in the way God said He was going to respond.
We now get to chapter 3.
In the NIV translation it records chapter 3 as Habakkuk’s prayer.
In starts of in verse 2 by Habakkuk saying he has heard of God’ fame and is in awe of His deeds.
Habakkuk then goes on to pray a lot about God what He will and does do.
In verses 18-19 the book of Habakkuk finishes with these verses; verses I want us to dwell on today:
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
Let’s start with verse 18:
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
First of we see this word yet so we must take note of what has been said in previous verses. Yet is saying in spite of, nevertheless.
Verse 16-18 list some perhaps not great things that were happening, but Habakkuk had decided to say in spite of these things I will rejoice in the Lord.
We can be joyful even when times are tough because of what Habakkuk says in verse 19:
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
The sovereign Lord is my strength.
The sovereign Lord is your strength!
We are going to go back and forth between strength and rejoicing.
Let’s flip back to rejoicing, to being joyful in the Lord.
Rejoicing in the Lord can be found throughout the bible, not always spelt out with the word rejoice but here are two examples where it is:
Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
The ability of Habakkuk to be joyful to be able to rejoice is found in where in his strength comes from:
Verse 19a:
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
When we draw our strength from God rather than from material things or from other people, we find that we can handle most situations.
Does it mean there won’t be sadness, no, sadness is an emotion that we will feel, but God gives us the strength to over sadness.
So, how do we grow in joy.
I must confess I wasn’t sure.
I could just say be more joyful, but I am not sure that is helpful.
The I came across a short video on Right Now Media by a gentleman called Ranjit David.
He spoke on being joyful from Habakkuk 3 and he said the following:
Biblical joy is different.
Biblical joy is a discipline. We need to choose to be joyful, we need to practice being joyful.
How do we practice, being joyful, growing in joy.
Ranjit David suggested the following three practices:
- Discipline in prayer.
- Discipline of meditating on God’s word.
- Discipline of Gratitude.
I cannot argue with this. I cannot reinvent this.
Habakkuk prayed.
Habakkuk new of God’s deeds, how do we do that? We read God’s word and meditate on it, hold it in our hearts.
Habakkuk was grateful.
By using these three practices we will grow in our relationship with God, we will draw on the strength that He provides.
Conclusion
Habakkuk went from the depths of despair to rejoicing.
He set aside His ways and focused on God’s ways.
He remembered the sovereignty of God.
He trusted God and remained faithful.
