The Peace Of Faith Series

II. A DELAYING WORD, 16b. or A DYNAMIC WORD

If we are going to get up on our high places, we also must learn to wait upon God. Personally, I too often find myself trying to drag God along behind me. I don’t know which is worse: hearing from Him when He says things I don’t want to hear or waiting on Him. But we’ve got to learn to wait on God. He works in His own time. He told Habakkuk: "I am going to do what I said I was going to do, but it will come at the appointed time." He is the God of the eleventh hour. Learn to wait on Him.

How do we wait? Habakkuk says (v. 16): "Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress" Did you hear that? How do we wait? "Quietly." In other words, "Whatever God allows must be good because He is a good God. I trust Him. I am going to put all my faith in Him, and I’ll wait until it comes. I’ll wait until it is over, quietly." Please understand; this is the normal Christian life. When you trust God, and He is doing something in your life that you can’t fathom, you just have to wait until He is finished.

[There are four things to consider about waiting. First of all, it involves anticipation.] If you really trust God, it involves anticipation. Habakkuk said in 3:16, "I must wait quietly." The word for "wait" in Hebrew is an exciting word. It means "to weave." It is never passive when you wait. It is always full of anticipation. God is weaving everything together. Learn to let God take all those circumstances that you cannot begin to understand. He’ll weave them together into a design you would have never believed was possible.

[When I was growing up we didn’t have power mowers. We had the old push kind-"armstrong" power. My Dad wanted me to mow the grass. I hated mowing the grass. To this day I hate it. My father came tome one day and said, "Wayne, "If you’ll cut the grass every Saturday for the next four weeks, we’ll go to California and have a wonderful time together as a family." We had some relatives there who had said we could stay with them.

Man, the next Saturday morning, I jumped out of bed and I got that lawn mower out. Son, I was making that blade sing as I walked across the yard pushing that thing. Every time I would cut a row, I kept thinking, "I ’can’t wait to go to California."]

Part of waiting is that anticipation of what God is doing. What’s going on in your life right now? Wait on Him. Just wait. When He is ready for you to know what He is doing, He will let you know. He’ll bring it about at the appointed time.

The prophet was determined to wait for that day which would be filled with destruction which would be followed by another day of victory and vindication over wicked Babylon. Habakkuk has faced the frightening fact that his nation will be invaded by a merciless enemy. He knows that many will go into exile and many will be slain. The land will be ruined, and Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed. Yet he has placed his faith in God, trusting Him to act responsibly. He can rely upon God’s character even in the day of distress.