Habakkuk 2:1

“I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.”

Habakkuk is a prophet of the Lord in the Old Testament. He is coming before God in confusion and misunderstanding over the wickedness and destruction that is all around him. This verse stuck out to me when reading through Habakkuk. Habakkuk knows that his heart is not in the right place before the Lord when coming in to question and doubt him. As I continued to read over this and talk with others about the meaning of it, I came to understand a much deeper meaning to why Habakkuk was taking this stand. Not only was he waiting before the Lord for a response, but he was also asking the Lord to correct his heart in this waiting. His heart was doubting God and all He had said He was going to do in Habakkuk’s time. In coming before God in complaint, Habakkuk made this statement to the Lord. Habakkuk was taking his stand at his watch post, still doing what the Lord had asked of him, being faithful in that task, waiting on the correction of the Lord. Later on in Habakkuk, the Lord says this to him, “And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so 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 2:2-3)  The Lord gave him a vision and a purpose to all that was taking place. He corrected Habakkuk’s heart and pointed him back to the Truth and Life that flows from Himself. 

As the Lord helped me to understand this more, I realized that my heart and Habakkuk’s heart were very similar. My heart has been so wrong in not seeing the goodness of what he has put before me because it doesn’t look how I think it should. I have been limiting Him in my life and diminishing the joy He has given me through salvation because one small thing throws me off and then I get put into my flesh. I had lost sight of the joy of Christ. The plan that God has doesn’t work on my time frame, or in my limitations, I have an unlimited God who is working in ways I can’t even begin to understand. I bring all these complaints and cries to the Lord because it isn’t going my way or I just don’t understand why He would have me doing something, but His plan is so much greater. In my eyes it is slow and painful and I don’t really want to do that certain thing, but I am also asking the Lord to grow me and put me in places to advance in gifts and abilities he wants me to cultivate more. He is only asking me to be faithful in each moment, every day, with the things and the tasks he sets before me. The joy of the Lord can be so easily taken away because I get stuck on little lies and situations that the enemy uses to get me down. I realized that the joy of the Lord in all things is one way the Lord accomplishes so much through us because we are ready and willing to go and do whatever He asks of us. If I don’t keep centered on Christ, filled with His joy, then He can’t use me in the fullest Capacity he desires because I’m stuck wallowing in my flesh.

Realizing all of these things, I felt the Lord challenging me to be like Habakkuk and keep my watch post waiting for Him, taking joy in what He sets before me, centered and focused on Him alone. I have started to stop in those moments of wallowing and asking the Lord to completely change my heart and it is cool to really experience that change. My application is to have my leader Sara hold me accountable for my prayer life and really coming before the Lord intimately and also to write each day something that the Lord has given me to have joy in.