Worshipping God when things are going fine is good, such as having a roof over your head (decent housing), eating whatever your heart desires, drinking whatever beverage of your choice, being healthy, being able to provide for your family, living in freedom (freedom of movement, speech and religion), and being able to show off your latest clothes and accessories at your place of worship. All well and good, however, what about praising God, when you are mourning the (the untimely, according to you) loss of a close member of your family, when you are destitute, homeless, hungry, of ill health, in prison, in exile, in captivity, under attack by your sworn, declared enemies, and when just about everything is not going your way. And you call on God for help; and nothing, zilch, nada, nyet, gein, no answer from Him. Can you still praise and worship Him? Can you still love Him? That is what faith like that of Habakkuk is like.
There is a worship song whose lyrics capture Habakkuk’s faith, and a refrain from the lyrics goes thus:
“When You do not move the mountain, I want You to move,
When You do not walk on the water, I want You to walk,
I will rejoice in You, the Lord.”
A study of the book of Habakkuk chapter 3, reveals in verse 2, that Habakkuk was asking God to move a mountain; Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
Further down in that last chapter of the book of Habakkuk, we have Habakkuk keeping his faith in God, praising and worshipping God, in spite of the dire circumstances in verses 17 to 19; Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to tread on the heights. Things did not get better in Habakkuk’s time, but they did get better in God’s own appointed time. Keep the faith. Our physical demise is not the end of the story. We come from dust, obscurity and we pass on to dust, obscurity. God lives forever, eternity. God of infinity. There is only one work, that is Salvation, and He has already done it. He did everything by Himself, Creation and Salvation. Do not delude yourself into thinking that God needs your help as a worker, what work do you want to help God with? The work that is already completed. You have a choice, either you believe in Him or not. That does not stop Him from being God, irrespective of your personal circumstances. Love God with all your body, soul and might. Love your neighbour (including your self-declared enemies) as yourself, that is truly how you can show that you love God, whom you cannot see.
