The
Lord God Is My Strength
“We must interpret
circumstances by God and not God by the circumstances,” wrote G. Campbell
Morgan. “The peril of the hour is that men and women of faith may be trying to
account for God by the circumstances of affliction.”
We see God in His activity.
He has demonstrated His holiness, justice, and love at the cross. There is no
reason why we should ever question His love because of the great manifestation
of that love at Calvary. He sent His Son to die for us while we were yet
sinners (Rom. 8:32). God does not change in His eternal attributes.
We are tempted in an hour of
extreme difficulty to judge God by what we are experiencing. The reality of
God’s eternal presence compels us to examine again the dark hour we experience
from the standpoint of the eternal God (James 1:17; Mal. 3:6).
In his impressive dialogue
with God, the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk asked hard questions that trouble the
minds of men. What Habakkuk was questioning was much like what we see and
experience in our day. Why do we have to witness the violence, iniquity,
wickedness, destruction, and perverted justice, etc.?
The LORD God told Habakkuk,
“I am doing something in your days – you would not believe it if you were told”
(Habakkuk 1:5). God was using the circumstances to accomplish His eternal
purposes. “I am raising up the Chaldeans” (v. 6).
When the Lord treads the winepress He forces us to live out
what we are in the inner person. He forces us to reveal what we are on the
inside. He will not allow us to say we are one thing and be something else in
life.
Habakkuk learned from the
terrible invasion of the Chaldeans to put his trust in the eternal God who sees
the end from the beginning of all calamities. “Yet I will exalt in the LORD, I
will rejoice in the God of my salvation” (3:18). That is seeing God above the
circumstances.
When we see the
circumstances through God’s eyes, we are transformed. “The LORD God is my
strength, and He has made my feet like hind’s feet, and makes me walk on my high
places” (v. 19).
Habakkuk was hiding in God’s
power. The God of Jacob was his refuge. “His ways are everlasting” (3:6). The
eternal principles have not changed.
May God give us discernment
to see His hand in cruel circumstances. When we are overwhelmed by the present
evil age, we are inclined to ask, “Why are You silent when the wicked swallowed
up those more righteous than they?” (v. 13).
Do you have some cruel,
wicked, violent Chaldeans invading your fortress today? The LORD God told the
fretting prophet, “The righteous will live by faith” (2:4). That is the only
way you can live in those circumstances.
But the critical question is
in whom or what is the focus of your faith? “The LORD God is my strength”
(3:19).
When we see the LORD God is the One in control of
the circumstances we want to shout out with Isaiah: “Behold, God is my
salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and
song, and He has become my salvation. Therefore you will joyously draw water
from the springs of salvation. And in that day you will say, ‘Give thanks to the
Lord, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; Make them
remember that His name is exalted.’ Praise the Lord in song, for He has done
excellent things; Let this be known throughout the earth” (Isaiah 12:2-5, NASB
1995).
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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