Hard Places, Dark Valleys, and a Good Father
You get to make the choice: Will you wrestle, stay in the game, and RUN towards God, or pull away?
Life is full of disappointments, ups and down, twists and turns. How do you handle the battle? When the enemy is closing in and the numbers against you are far more than the numbers for you, do you run and hide? Do you live by your feelings, get angry, and ask, "Why me?"
When the struggle is real and raw, and the pain is so deep, where do you turn for comfort and relief? When doubt weighs in…that is where the wrestling begins!
“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets; so that he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come. It will not delay.” Habakkuk 2:1-3.
“The just shall live by faith.” Habakkuk 2:4.
Habakkuk’s life speaks to the process of the journey. The wrestling and the questions begin for Habakkuk in the first chapter where He asks God the question, "How long will this evil and injustice occur? How long shall I cry out? How long will this evil season last? How long before you make my feet like those of the deer? How long God?"
At that point Habakkuk goes to the watchtower and sees that a storm is coming, and an army is approaching. Then he begins to shake his fists at God and says, “I do not understand… why are You doing this?" He cries out, "Help me please! Why me, Lord?"
Do you find yourself in similar moments of raw realness crying out to God? Do you also question and wrestle with what you see?
God then replies to Habakkuk and says: "Look among the nations…Look what I am about to do… I am working a good work. It is such a great work that you would not believe if it were told to you."
Habakkuk is astounded by His reply. Just like Habakkuk, I have been there more times than not. I've gotten stuck in the tension between this world and the Cross - hidden in the middle, trying so desperately not to doubt BUT rather believe. (And truly God is working a work in us even when it seems as though He is not working at all.)
The Lord says to us in Romans 8:28, “For I work ALL things for the good for those who love Me - to those who are called according to My purpose.”
Here is the promise that God gives us as we wrestle with God that Habakkuk did not have. In our struggle we hear Him say, "I am THERE, and because of My Word, you know the end of the story. The victory is yours! The battle is already WON!"
We have to make the choice even while we are in the fray to live by faith and trust what we cannot see. We must choose to let our feelings be just like clouds in the sky that pass us by.
But what if we make the choice instead to focus on the evil and injustices in the world that are all around us that try their best to attach themselves to our thinking and rob us of our joy and contentment in Christ Jesus? For example, maybe it is a betrayal, loss, financial ruin, broken family, bad marriage, disability, illness, and even death. Then we would not be able to fully live by faith. We would get swallowed up by the evil and have no hope in the Cross of Christ. I believe that hard times (I call them the valley) are where the real training begins. We must persevere through the valley no matter the cost and hold tight to the promises of God. We must make the choice to RUN TOWARDS Him.
Habakkuk’s name means embrace. What if we made the choice to embrace each struggle, wrestle through the process of the burning out of our flesh, and allow real transformation to take root? Only then can we find real peace.
We must choose to trust that God’s eyes roam the whole earth looking for those who have faith. Then at the proper time we will receive the answer if we do not faint. We must be able to “write the vision" then wait on it to happen.
Let's allow the process of the struggle to change us as we die to our own desires and burn out our flesh. No matter how fierce the battle is or how long the season may last or how great the pain may be, we can rejoice and "take joy in the God of our salvation.“
"God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s. He makes me tread on high places." Habakkuk 3:18-19.
The journey produces wisdom that can only come from God. And at the end of our journey we will say the same sweet words that both Job and Habakkuk said, “Now my eyes see Thee.”
That is my prayer for you - and for myself, too, that through all the sadness, the painful dark nights that we will look up, run to, and embrace our Savior and cry out “For now my eyes see Thee for You have been faithful through it all.”
John 10:10 reads, "The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I (Jesus) have come to give abundant life."
John 14:27 reads, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not be afraid.”
~~ Elizabeth Bowman