Habakkuk 3:17-19

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.”

This section is the praise that Habakkuk lifts up to the Lord at the end of this book. Habakkuk is rejoining in the Lord because he received a correction and change of heart from the Lord to see the goodness of the Lord in the midst of the chaos. God reminded him of His saving grace and mercy that pours out to His children and the destruction that comes against the unrighteous. Habakkuk was reminded that the Lord goes out before His children and steps in for them and fights even when it seems like nothing is happening. There is always calm and joy in the midst of the storm. In Psalm 27:13 it says, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!”  I was reminded of this verse as I read this passage in Habakkuk because David and Habakkuk write about seeing the goodness and the joy of the Lord in this land where He has placed them.

Quite often in my heart, I look not to the joy of the Lord, but the satisfaction of the temporal and how it can make me happy. I forget that nothing satisfies like the Lord. I go about my day and I get so focused on what is around me that my eyes get fixed in the wrong place. My heart becomes blurry and unfocused on the Lord, He is only an afterthought of what I do in each day. I let fear and doubt and my flesh rule my heart and my mind instead of focusing on the grace and joy that I get to have because of the salvation that was so freely given to me. I so badly want to please people and bring happiness to them by doing the right thing, I get so focused on not disappointing people that I lose sight of the Lord in each thing I get to do in each day. I forget to see the joy of where the Lord has placed me and who He has placed me with. When the Lord brought me back to this passage I was convicted and brought to a point of brokenness before Him. I am so thankful that all of the things I had messed up in weren’t what Christ defined me by. He looks and sees a beautiful creation, in need of redirecting, but not broken or unusable. As the Lord revealed the true condition of this area of my life, I started to redirect my mind and refocus on why I was in Uganda with a team of twenty living in the village of Nangombe getting to be a part of the lives of so many people and children that I just met two months ago. The Lord is so gracious to let me live this life and be in such a beautiful place. As the Lord grows me, even when it isn’t fun, I am reminded of this verse in Habakkuk, how He makes me tread on high places, and He is my only true source of strength and satisfaction. No matter what is going on around me, even if I don’t necessarily feel the Lord, He is there and I get to rejoice in my salivation.

It’s so beautiful how the lord cares for each one of His children and how He desires to see us be more like His Son and that is why we are pushed to grow and go deeper. When I forget to keep my eyes and mind and heart fixed on the Lord, He can’t use me in the fullest capacity He desires and He can’t cultivate in me the things He has given me because I am not looking to Him. I am so thankful that I don’t have to do it on my own and that He can restore the joy to me that the enemy tries to take away from each one of God’s children. There truly is no one like our Father. As school starts here in Uganda and we are really kicking into full gear, I am going to ask my teammate Hope to keep me accountable for keeping my eyes on the Lord and really coming before the Lord in prayer.