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FRIDAY
In chapter 1, Habakkuk brought his honest questions before God. In chapter 2, God responded to those questions and now, in Chapter 3, Habakkuk replies to God with a prayer saying:
3 Lord, I have heard of your fame;
3 Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
This verse is simple and yet profound and immediately applicable.
There are two major elements to this verse: a remembrance and a request. Habakkuk begins by recognizing all that the Lord did for Israel. He brought them out of Egypt, He parted the Red Sea, He revealed Himself in a cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night to lead Israel, He delivered manna in the desert, took down the walls of Jericho, overcame giants in the Promised Land and He delivered His people. Habakkuk calls on the rich history of his people and the power of God revealed in creation. Habakkuk is essentially saying, “I know who You are and I know what You have done.” He is looking at all of the punishment that lies in front of the People of God and the pain that has resulted and will continue because of persistent national disobedience. And yet he responds by saying, “But I remember who you are and what you have done in our past.”
This call to remember is a critical one. The immediate application of this profound recognition is that in our own lives, we too need to remember who God is and what He has done in our lives, particularly in times of trial or suffering. Often times, I can lose sight of what God has done in the past in the moments when I feel as though God is distant. Habakkuk reminds us to take account of those times when God has been most evident in our lives, the experiences when He has felt most near, and to hold on to them when the challenges of life overwhelm us. Your remembrance can be journal that you keep, a symbol that reminds you of a significant moment in your faith journey or even a relationship that shared in your experience. The key is to find ways to remember because the challenge of doubt, discouragement and disillusionment that Habakkuk faces is a challenge that is common to all of us. In the midst of it, we draw hope from the knowledge of who God is and what He has done in our past.
Habakkuk continues then with a request-- he simply and confidently asks God to do it again. Darren Whitehead writes in his book Rumors of God regarding this powerful prayer saying, “Habakkuk passionately verbalized the anguish of his time. He had heard the rumors of God’s fame, caught rumblings of God’s deeds, but would not stop until he experienced the reality of the transcendent power of God in his life, Habakkuk started to cry out for something he had never seen before. The cry of his heart was to see an awakening of the fame and deeds of God-- in his day, in his time, in his generation.”
May Habakkuk’s prayer be our prayer as we continue to seek the fame of our God lived out in our lives and in our homes.
Pastor Sterling Moore
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
This verse is simple and yet profound and immediately applicable.
There are two major elements to this verse: a remembrance and a request. Habakkuk begins by recognizing all that the Lord did for Israel. He brought them out of Egypt, He parted the Red Sea, He revealed Himself in a cloud by day and as a pillar of fire by night to lead Israel, He delivered manna in the desert, took down the walls of Jericho, overcame giants in the Promised Land and He delivered His people. Habakkuk calls on the rich history of his people and the power of God revealed in creation. Habakkuk is essentially saying, “I know who You are and I know what You have done.” He is looking at all of the punishment that lies in front of the People of God and the pain that has resulted and will continue because of persistent national disobedience. And yet he responds by saying, “But I remember who you are and what you have done in our past.”
This call to remember is a critical one. The immediate application of this profound recognition is that in our own lives, we too need to remember who God is and what He has done in our lives, particularly in times of trial or suffering. Often times, I can lose sight of what God has done in the past in the moments when I feel as though God is distant. Habakkuk reminds us to take account of those times when God has been most evident in our lives, the experiences when He has felt most near, and to hold on to them when the challenges of life overwhelm us. Your remembrance can be journal that you keep, a symbol that reminds you of a significant moment in your faith journey or even a relationship that shared in your experience. The key is to find ways to remember because the challenge of doubt, discouragement and disillusionment that Habakkuk faces is a challenge that is common to all of us. In the midst of it, we draw hope from the knowledge of who God is and what He has done in our past.
Habakkuk continues then with a request-- he simply and confidently asks God to do it again. Darren Whitehead writes in his book Rumors of God regarding this powerful prayer saying, “Habakkuk passionately verbalized the anguish of his time. He had heard the rumors of God’s fame, caught rumblings of God’s deeds, but would not stop until he experienced the reality of the transcendent power of God in his life, Habakkuk started to cry out for something he had never seen before. The cry of his heart was to see an awakening of the fame and deeds of God-- in his day, in his time, in his generation.”
May Habakkuk’s prayer be our prayer as we continue to seek the fame of our God lived out in our lives and in our homes.
Pastor Sterling Moore
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