JOHN SHIRK – Today’s Faith-Building Verses are Habakkuk 3:17 and 18.

The prophet said, “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.”

This statement of faith stops us in our tracks to consider what our relationship with God might look like if the crops failed or if food was scarce. After this prophet of God struggled with hard questions, he arrived at a place where his joy was in the Lord, not in his circumstances.

For people like Habakkuk, David, and Jacob in the Bible, their struggles led to worship. That is what can happen with us when we seek God through our difficult questions.

These Faith-Building Verses inspire us to rejoice in the Lord through the circumstances of our lives in the Year of Relationship.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com

JOHN SHIRK – In the Year of Redemption, today’s Freedom Phrase is based on Habakkuk 1, verses 2 and 3.

Habakkuk said to God, “How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?”

This may not sound like a freedom phrase, but it is in the sense that this Habakkuk felt the liberty to ask God some perplexing questions on his mind. The book of Habakkuk follows this conversation between God and the prophet. 

God can use our questions to take us a deeper level of faith and a deeper understanding of who God is. Through Habakkuk’s questions, he grew deeper in his resolve to find his joy in God. He said at the end of this book, that even if the fields produce no food, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

Through Jesus, we are set free to be honest with God about tough questions.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com