Here's what I've been realizing this week: we've spent five weeks together learning how to stand in the wreckage. How to trust when nothing changes. How to move when the way is unclear.
But I wonder if some of you are still waiting for God to change your valley. Still praying for the easy path. Still hoping for the exit.
But that's not what God promised. God doesn't promise to remove the mountain. God promises to give you the feet to climb it. This isn't a series about changing your circumstances. It's a series about changing your character. Not a new valley. A new elevation.
And now, in this final moment, we discover what holds us when everything else lets go. Not a different situation. A different strength.
WHAT HABAKKUK DOES NOT SAY
Listen to Habakkuk 3:19: "The Sovereign LORD is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to tread on the heights."
But before we hear what he says, notice what he doesn't say. Because what Habakkuk refuses to say is just as important as what he does.
He does not say: "The harvest is my strength." He's learned that harvests can fail. But God cannot fail.
He does not say: "The economy is my strength." Economies collapse. But God is eternally stable.
He does not say: "The outcome is my strength." Outcomes might not be what we want. But God Himself God's character, God's faithfulness, God's presence that's what we can stand on.
So, what does he say? "The Sovereign LORD is my strength." This is covenant language. When resources fail, relationship remains. When systems collapse, the Savior sustains. When everything shakes, one thing stands unmoved. God.
FEET LIKE DEER
Habakkuk uses a beautiful image: "He makes my feet like the feet of a deer."
Have you ever watched a deer move? They're remarkable creatures. A deer can climb steep heights that would terrify a human. A deer can find purchase on rocky cliffs where there seems to be nothing solid to stand on.
But here's how a deer actually stays sure-footed on impossible terrain: their back feet land exactly where their front feet just were. They don't have to look ahead to the peak. They don't have to see the whole path. They just trust the placement of the first step. One hoof placed in faith. Then the next hoof placed in the same spot.
That is faith. Stepping exactly where God has already cleared the way, without needing to see the whole path. You don't have to see the peak. You don't have to understand the whole journey. You just have to trust the hoof-print of the One who went before you.
This is so important: Faith does not remove our difficulties. But faith teaches us how to stand in the pain. Faith teaches us how to move through what we cannot change. The mountain is still there. But now you have the feet to climb it.
THE JOURNEY RECAPPED
Before we go deeper, let me take you back through these five weeks. Habakkuk didn't start at faith. He started in collapse.
Week 1: We learned to face our collapse honestly. Faith begins with naming the loss. The fig tree doesn't bud. The vine has no grapes. Everything has failed. Faith isn't the absence of the storm. It is the presence of the Savior in the wreckage.
Week 2: We learned the difference between optimism and faith. Optimism is a thermometer it reads the temperature of your circumstances. But faith is a thermostat it changes the climate of your soul. God's goodness is unwavering, His sovereignty is unshakable, and His faithfulness is unfailing.
Week 3: We learned that praise is a protest. When you lift your voice in worship in the middle of pain, you're making a declaration. Joy in the wreckage is not a feeling it's a protest against the darkness.
Week 4: We learned that faith is not passive it's active. Faith is a verb. It's something you do. We learned the Four D's: Devotion, Doxology, Dependence, Duty. We picked up our hammers and got to the weight room.
Week 5 Today: We learned that the strength comes from trusting God alone. After facing collapse, after shifting to faith, after protesting through praise, after acting through seasons of waiting we finally discover the source. It's not our strength. It's His.
THREE MARKS OF MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING FAITH
I want to be very clear about what kind of faith Habakkuk is describing. This faith has three marks that distinguish it.
MATURE FAITH: It believes in the dark. Shallow faith praises when the sun is shining. But mature faith believes when everything is falling apart. Mature faith trusts when there's no proof at all, only a person to trust.
RESILIENT FAITH: It bounces back from the bad news. Fragile faith breaks the first-time circumstances don't cooperate. But resilient faith survives anything because it's not dependent on circumstances. It's dependent on God. And God doesn't change.
COVENANTAL FAITH: It is based on a Person, not a paycheck. Circumstantial faith says: "I'll trust God if..." But covenantal faith says: "I trust God because He is God." Not because of what He does. Because of who He is.
WHAT THIS FAITH LOOKS LIKE
When crops fail, faith still prays. When the harvest is empty, when the future looks bleak faith still brings its requests to God.
When joy fades, faith still praises. When the easy reasons to celebrate have disappeared faith still opens its mouth in worship.
When answers delay, faith still obeys. When the waiting has stretched longer than you thought possible faith still moves forward. Faith still shows up. Faith still does the right thing.
When strength runs out, faith still trusts. When you're exhausted, when everything inside you wants to give up faith still trusts. Not because faith generates its own strength. But because faith has learned to lean on God's strength. And God's strength never runs out.
SOVEREIGNTYTHE CAPTAIN
Here's the foundation of all of this: God is sovereign. Sovereign means God is in charge. God is the ruler. God is the one who has the final say.
But here's what I want you to understand: Sovereignty doesn't mean God is a cold dictator ignoring your pain. It means He is a Captain who charted the storm before the storm ever started. You aren't drifting helplessly. You are being directed.
And here's the liberation: You don't have to hold the wheel. You don't have to navigate. You don't have to have it all figured out. Because the Captain isn't fazed by the wind. He's been expecting this storm all along. And He knows the way through it.
4 A.M. ALTAR
I want to tell you about someone who discovered what Habakkuk meant in a very real way. For a long time, he carried something heavy in his spirit. Every morning at 4 a.m. he would wake up, staring at the ceiling, his heart racing. He tried to solve it, manage it, control it. He told himself he was being responsible, a good leader, even faithful.
But one morning the truth hit him. He wasn’t being faithful; he was being arrogant. He realized he was sitting at an altar, the altar of his own control, trying to do God’s job with a human brain. His anxiety wasn’t responsibility, it was idolatry. He was worshiping the lie that he could handle what only God could handle. And he said that playing God is the most exhausting religion in the world.
That morning he stopped trying to be the strong one. He stopped trying to manage everything. He prayed a simple prayer of surrender: “God, You’re strong. I’m not. You’re in control. I’m not. You’re the Captain, and I’m done trying to navigate the storm.”
And something remarkable happened. He got stronger. Not by trying harder, but by stopping. By surrendering. By admitting he wasn’t enough and God was. By saying, “The Lord is my strength,” and meaning it.
That 4 a.m. altar became the place where he laid down control and picked up God’s strength. And from that day forward he understood what Habakkuk meant: faith that works when life doesn’t is not about holding everything together, it is about God holding us together.
WHAT THIS FAITH REQUIRES
This faith requires that you trust God when you don't understand what He's doing. That you believe His character is good even when His actions seem confusing.
This faith requires that you stop believing the lie that you're in control. That you admit you don't have all the answers.
This faith requires that you choose to believe God is good, over and over again, even when circumstances suggest otherwise. That's hard. But it's also the most freeing thing you could ever do.
CONCLUSION: WILL YOU CLIMB WITH HIM?
So, here's my invitation to you. Not just to believe this. But to live it. To make it your practice.
When you wake up tomorrow, and life is still hard, and everything is still uncertain will you say it? "The Lord is my strength." Not as words. As a confession. As a choice. As an act of faith.
Will you learn to walk like the deer? Will you let God give you the feet to stand on the unstable ground? Will you trust that the mountain will not destroy you because God is with you on the mountain?
This is the complete faith. A faith that:
- Faces collapse honestly. Yet chooses to believe.
- Trusts in God's character. Not in promising outcomes.
- Worships even when it feels like protest. Because worship is defiance.
- Obeys even when obedience is thankless. Because obedience honors God.
- And stands firm. Because God Himself is the foundation.
When everything else is shaken, this faith stands firm. When everything else is gone, this faith still sings. When everything else collapses, this faith still climbs. And that's the faith worth having.
DECLARATION
Lord, when life doesn't work, teach me to trust You anyway.
Teach me to praise without proof.
Teach me to obey without outcomes.
Teach me to walk like the deer on ground I cannot see.
And teach me to stand strong because You are my strength. You are my Captain. You have already charted the way.
BENEDICTION
May the Sovereign Lord become your strength in the days ahead. May you discover that trusting God alone is stronger than controlling your circumstances. May your feet find sure footing on the heights, not because the mountains will disappear, but because God will give you the stability to climb them. May you stop trying to play God and start letting Him be God. And may you stand firm in a world that shakes, knowing that the one who holds you cannot be moved.
In the name of Jesus, who is the strength and the hope of all who believe.
Amen.
