This is the last sermon in the series from the book of Habakkuk called “Trusting God in Troubled Times”. Today we will look at how we can rejoice in God in the midst of our questions and waiting.
3:17 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
Figs, vines, olive, fields, flock and herd represent the wealth, economy and security of Israel. This is Habakkuk’s savings, his personal capital and what we know in today’s terms as stocks, bonds, deposits etc. This was the country’s wealth at that time. And what Habakkuk and Judah is facing is a total social and economic collapse. It’s a disaster of epic proportions. They are looking at starvation, famine and exile, which will impact several years and even decades.
Maybe you are facing dark times. Maybe your savings are wiped out, you are facing job loss or deciding whether to shut down your business, or what if you fall sick with the Corona virus, or maybe you are battling depression and debilitating fear during this time.
How can you rejoice when nothing seems to go right, when you are crippled by fear, anxiety and worry?
Is this joy that Habakkuk talks about pretense or fake? Is this like telling ourselves everything will be ok? No. There is a deep, real, rich and lasting joy that is available for those who seek God.
Let’s quickly understand what Biblical joy is. Biblical joy is not rejoicing for your suffering. We understand that suffering is a result of the Fall, it is the enemy’s work and yet God allows it for a reason. We mourn, groan and grieve in our suffering. We hurt with pain when we suffer just as Christ mourned and grieved over his suffering and the suffering of those around him. So we don’t rejoice over our suffering.
Biblical joy not something that happens after suffering ends. Yes we do rejoice when suffering ends. But biblical joy is concurrent and coexists with our sufferings. We don’t somehow make it during suffering and then joy awaits us in the end. No, we experience incredible joy in the midst of our suffering. This is counter cultural understanding. A life of faith in Christ involves weeping and joy, sadness and happiness, mourning and laughing. Joy is concurrent and coexists with our suffering.
Lastly, biblical joy is enhanced by sorrow and grief. This is definitely paradoxical and seems illogical. But the Bible says that we experience greater grace when we suffer, greater glory through our suffering, we experience God in a much closer, nearer and powerful way during our suffering when we turn to him, his love is much sweeter and his presence nearer to those who are broken hearted. So our joy is enhanced in the midst of our suffering.
How do we access such joy when we go through life’s most trying times? We will look at simple biblical steps to experience this joy. We can call this as practicing joy. How can we practice joy? Joy is commanded in scripture and hence needs to be pursued and practiced. Joy is a discipline.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Just like you practice a sport to get better, we can practice simple steps to experience joy better and greater in our lives. Practicing joy requires regular, systematic, intentional, purposeful, deliberate, frequent and habitual effort. Biblical joy does not fall on you automatically, rather it is experienced it as we pursue it with all our heart.
In the Book “Finding quiet” that talks about overcoming anxiety and practices that brings peace and joy, it observes that only 10% of our happiness is based on life’s circumstances. Only 10%. This means 90% of our unhappiness is not because of circumstances. It observes that 40% of our happiness is based on life’s free choices, how we live our lives and it is in our control. And the rest 50% is biological and how we are wired. This shows that we can take simple steps that can lead us to experience tremendous joy in the midst of our difficult situations.
We can practice joy through three disciplines that are related to one another.
1. Discipline of prayer
The entire book of Habakkuk is a prayer. Habakkuk is not preaching but praying. Praying involves asking questions, venting emotions, grieving and lamenting.
1:2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you
“Violence!” and you will not save?
Praying involves waiting in silence, being quiet before God, listening, watching and obeying.
This is the last sermon in the series from the book of Habakkuk called “Trusting God in Troubled Times”. Today we will look at how we can rejoice in God in the midst of our questions and waiting.
3:17 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
Figs, vines, olive, fields, flock and herd represent the wealth, economy and security of Israel. This is Habakkuk’s savings, his personal capital and what we know in today’s terms as stocks, bonds, deposits etc. This was the country’s wealth at that time. And what Habakkuk and Judah is facing is a total social and economic collapse. It’s a disaster of epic proportions. They are looking at starvation, famine and exile, which will impact several years and even decades.
Maybe you are facing dark times. Maybe your savings are wiped out, you are facing job loss or deciding whether to shut down your business, or what if you fall sick with the Corona virus, or maybe you are battling depression and debilitating fear during this time.
How can you rejoice when nothing seems to go right, when you are crippled by fear, anxiety and worry?
Is this joy that Habakkuk talks about pretense or fake? Is this like telling ourselves everything will be ok? No. There is a deep, real, rich and lasting joy that is available for those who seek God.
Let’s quickly understand what Biblical joy is. Biblical joy is not rejoicing for your suffering. We understand that suffering is a result of the Fall, it is the enemy’s work and yet God allows it for a reason. We mourn, groan and grieve in our suffering. We hurt with pain when we suffer just as Christ mourned and grieved over his suffering and the suffering of those around him. So we don’t rejoice over our suffering.
Biblical joy not something that happens after suffering ends. Yes we do rejoice when suffering ends. But biblical joy is concurrent and coexists with our sufferings. We don’t somehow make it during suffering and then joy awaits us in the end. No, we experience incredible joy in the midst of our suffering. This is counter cultural understanding. A life of faith in Christ involves weeping and joy, sadness and happiness, mourning and laughing. Joy is concurrent and coexists with our suffering.
Lastly, biblical joy is enhanced by sorrow and grief. This is definitely paradoxical and seems illogical. But the Bible says that we experience greater grace when we suffer, greater glory through our suffering, we experience God in a much closer, nearer and powerful way during our suffering when we turn to him, his love is much sweeter and his presence nearer to those who are broken hearted. So our joy is enhanced in the midst of our suffering.
How do we access such joy when we go through life’s most trying times? We will look at simple biblical steps to experience this joy. We can call this as practicing joy. How can we practice joy? Joy is commanded in scripture and hence needs to be pursued and practiced. Joy is a discipline.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.
Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Just like you practice a sport to get better, we can practice simple steps to experience joy better and greater in our lives. Practicing joy requires regular, systematic, intentional, purposeful, deliberate, frequent and habitual effort. Biblical joy does not fall on you automatically, rather it is experienced it as we pursue it with all our heart.
In the Book “Finding quiet” that talks about overcoming anxiety and practices that brings peace and joy, it observes that only 10% of our happiness is based on life’s circumstances. Only 10%. This means 90% of our unhappiness is not because of circumstances. It observes that 40% of our happiness is based on life’s free choices, how we live our lives and it is in our control. And the rest 50% is biological and how we are wired. This shows that we can take simple steps that can lead us to experience tremendous joy in the midst of our difficult situations.
We can practice joy through three disciplines that are related to one another.
1. Discipline of prayer
The entire book of Habakkuk is a prayer. Habakkuk is not preaching but praying. Praying involves asking questions, venting emotions, grieving and lamenting.
1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you
“Violence!” and you will not save?
Praying involves waiting in silence, being quiet before God, listening, watching and obeying.
2:1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
Praying involves worship, being in awe and wonder of who God is.
2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
2:20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”
Tim Keller in his book on prayer says, “Prayer is both a conversation and an encounter with God”. Prayer involves worship, adoration, repentance, reflection, contemplation, meditation, petition, supplication, silence, waiting, lamenting, grieving, rejoicing and trusting.
Prayer is being honest before God and yet in awe of who God is. Habakkuk was doing both in his prayer. Through prayer, we understand God deeply and we understand our own hearts genuinely. When we pray, we confront our fears, doubts and worries, it reveals our self justifications and how petty they are, it melts our anger and bitterness, turns our self pity into confidence and brings clarity and perspective to our lives.
Do you wonder what you are afraid? Anxious? Worried? Depressed? Angry? The question is are you praying? Are you coming to God with your fears, doubts, emotions and questions honestly?
Prayer is a means of grace to experience joy in God. Suffering leads you to pray more, depend on God more, seek him in his word more or pray less, seek God less and depend on ourselves. What is your posture when you suffer?
Prayer can be a simple discipline where you take a few minutes each day to be silent before God, read scripture and meditate, praise God and bring your heart with all its emotions to him honestly.
2. Discipline of remembering
3:2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
(NIV - LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD.)
What do you remember and recall? You remember the word of God and the works of God. Habakkuk is recalling what God has revealed to him about Judah and Babylon. His mind is dwelling on it, he is going over it again and again, he is meditating on what God has told him.
Habakkuk is recalling God’s work of salvation through the Exodus in chapter 3.
v.3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
This refers to the boundary of the desert through which the children of Israel made the exodus from Egypt.
v.4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand & there he veiled his power
It refers to God’s powerful deliverance upon Israel through the pillar of cloud and fire.
v.5 Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels
This refers to the plagues and pestilence and how God saved the people of Israel from judgment.
v.15 You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.
This refers to God’s deliverance through the red sea.
Habakkuk is recalling how God delivered Israel in the past. He is recalling the word of God and the works of God.
Do you remember God’s salvation, provision, providence and protection in your life? When you pray, you recall what God has done and who God is. Have a discipline of remembering and recalling the wonderful works of God in your life and the powerful word of God in scripture.
Prayer is not just informing God about your needs but also intentionally remembering what he has done for you. Prayer is not reminding God of what he has to do but reminding yourself of who he is.
When you pray, you take time to remember, recall and recollect the grace of God in your life.
3. Discipline of gratitude
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
When you pray remembering God’s wonderful works and powerful words, it leads to a posture of gratitude. You see Habakkuk even though he is going through a dark and hopeless time, he thanks God for his present strength and salvation. He says I will take joy in the God of my salvation. He says I the Lord is my strength and he makes my feet like the deer’s and makes me tread difficult and dangerous terrain.
Did you know that one of the most repeated commands in the bible is to rejoice and giving thanks. There is a profound connection between rejoicing and thanking.
Giving thanks is a discipline.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says give thanks in all circumstances
It is a habit that needs to be developed intentionally. Gratitude requires a willingness to remember, recognize and appreciate. It is other-directed.
As you pray bringing your doubts, fears and questions, and as you recall and remember God’s goodness and grace in your life, it fills your heart with gratitude. And this leads to joy!
Grow in gratitude. Grow in recalling all the circumstances that God had come through for you, in recalling all the people he used to bless you, all those numerous times he has showered his grace upon you. The more you grow in acknowledging the numerous ways, the numerous people, the numbers times God has worked on your behalf, the more you grow in gratitude resulting in growing joy.
The Book “Finding quiet” concludes that when one practices gratitude intentionally and when one makes it a habit that grows in intensity, frequency and span, it leads to deliverance from anxiety, depression, fear and fills you with joy, lead you to increased feelings of energy, alertness, enthusiasm, success in achieving personal goals, cope better with stress, closure from grief & trauma, increased feelings of self worth and confidence, makes you more generous and helpful, gain better health, greater sense of purpose and resilience.
Discipline of prayer, remembering and being grateful leads to deep and lasting joy at all times.
