SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2016
10:28 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 Pray for the Work of God
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Habakkuk
3:1-2
Message of
the verses: “1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet,
according to Shigionoth. 2 LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear.
O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years
make it known; In wrath
remember mercy.”
This has been a fairly long section to work through
as I am following the outline and commentary of Dr. Warren Wiersbe who has much
to say about these two verses, and usually when he has a lot to say about
something I take the time to read over it very carefully and to pass much of it
on to whomever takes the time to read these Spiritual Diaries.
As we look at the first verse we see that Habakkuk begins
this chapter with “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet,” and so when we see this
subject of prayer there is much to say about it as we have seen, and continue
to see as we continue to wade through these two verses.
We ended our last SD talking about knowing God
better and we have to realize that we are the ones who make it difficult to get
to know God better. Our Lord’s brother
James wrote “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). Isaiah writes in 66:2 “But on this one will I
look,” says the Lord, “on him who is poor and of contrite spirit, and who
trembles at My Word.” One more quote
from Psalm 119:120 “My flesh trembles in fear of you, I stand in awe of your
laws.” Let me just add one more verse that
has just came to my mind and that comes from Romans 12:2 “2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Paul is talking about having your mind renewed and this has to be done
in the same way that we get to know God better, and that is by the study of His
Word, for God speaks to us through His Word, and one of the things that we see
in His Word is a description of His attributes, and once we better understand
His attributes, we better understand who God is. The first requirement to better know God is
to become a believer in the Lord, believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins
as He took your place on the cross to take the punishment from God the Father on
Him which we deserved, by confessing that you are a sinner and can do nothing
on your own to bring about your salvation but believe that Jesus paid it all
for you. We are talking about prayer and
salvation is one prayer away.
If we look back to Habakkuk 1:5 we read “"Look
among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days-You
would not believe if you were told.” God
tells Habakkuk that He is going to do something and now we see that Habakkuk is
praying that God would keep that work
alive and cause it to prosper, and for him to pray this we have to believe that
his faith in the Lord has grown a lot since the Lord has been talking to
him. I have to compare him with Jonah
who did not grow spiritually through the experience that he went through, for
in the end he wanted to die because God was going to bring a revival to the
Assyrians.
I have mentioned that when the Lord Jesus Christ was
in the garden of Gethsemane He prayed that His Father would take away the cup
so that He would not have to drink it, speaking of going to the cross and
paying four our sins, but most of all being separated from His Father. Habakkuk did not like what the Lord told him
He was going to do, but now like Jesus did he was ready, by faith to have the
Lord accomplish what He planned to do, and that is to take Judah into captivity
by using the dreaded Babylonians.
We have one more reason why Habakkuk and that is a
very important reason as we see in at the end of the second verse: “In wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk
agreed with the Lord, in fact it was he who brought the need of having Him do
something about Judah’s sin, and now as he is ready for God to act he prays for
mercy to be remembered in God’s wrath.
When we see mercy and wrath we have to realize that they both are a part
of God’s attributes. As we look
throughout the Scriptures we will see that God has had a lot of mercy directed
to the nation of Israel and now Habakkuk asks for more of God’s mercy, God
giving them what they did not deserve nor could ever earn.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section: “If, like Habakkuk, you ever become
discouraged about the condition of the church, the state of the world, or your
own spiritual life, take time to pray and seek God’s mercy. Charles Spurgeon said, ‘Whatever we like it
or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom.’
The greatest need today is for intercessors. ‘And He saw that there was no man, and
wondered that there was no intercessor’ (Isa. 59:16).”
2/19/2016 10:59 PM
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