datethewordtest

Tag: Habakkuk

  • Verse to DATE the Word on March 19 (3/19) is Habakkuk 3:19

    Verse to DATE the Word on March 19 (3/19) is Habakkuk 3:19

    Our verse to DATE the Word on March 19 (3/19) is Habakkuk 3:19
    Habakkuk 3:19 says, “The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.”
    Joy does come in the morning

    The short minor prophet book of Habakkuk is a dialog between the prophet Habakkuk and God about the wicked Babylonians.  Habakkuk opens his book by expressing QUESTIONS he has for God regarding the judgment that is happening to Judah at the hands of the Babylonians.  The opening verses reveal his fears and his doubts.  Habakkuk 1:2-3 says, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? or cry out to You about violence and You do not save? 3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?

    Talk about having an honest conversation with God. Habakkuk is so transparent here.  He just does not understand how God can use such evil and wicked people as the Babylonians to be His instrument for judging His disobedient children.  He knows Judah has been disobedient and he knows they need to be corrected but he is having a hard time wrapping his head around God using the wicked to judge His people.  So he asks the WHY questions. As one reads through the book God will give answers, howbeit, hard answers.   As Habakkuk hears God’s answers, he will still have questions yet at the conclusion of the book he states unequivocally that he will TRUST the LORD GOD!! 

    Our verse to DATE is Habakkuk 3:19 and it is the last verse of the Book of Habakkuk.  While struggling with God and what he is doing Habakkuk is going to come to a conclusion about God and a conclusion about himself.  Starting in verse 16, Habakkuk restates what has been happening and then states his commitment to God regardless of what is going to happen and then he makes his declaration of trust and confidence in verse 19. 

    Notice his conclusion starting at Habakkuk 3:16.  “When I heard, my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; And I trembled in myself, That I might rest in the day of trouble. When he (the Babylonians) comes up to the people, He (the Babylonians) will invade them with his troops. 17  Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls — 18  Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

    Why could Habakkuk rejoice in the Lord even in the worst of times?  He could do so because He knew WHAT God COULD do and WOULD do.  Habakkuk 3:19 is Habakkuk’s confession. “The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.”

    I don’t know what is making your knees shake and knock.  The world we live in is scary.  There is ALWAYS uncertainty.  In the midst of the uncertainty and news that stir up inward fear, we are to be making disciples and shining as lights in this dark scary world.  Habakkuk 3:19 helps as it reminds us that while we feel we can’t HE CAN!  Habakkuk reminds us that God is our strength.  Just as He was a strength for Moses and Joshua and David and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Habakkuk, He will be your strength.  As Paul stated in Philippians 4:13, you can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens you.  

    Not only does God strengthen you, He provides stability.  Habakkuk says that God will take the one who has shakey and unsteady legs and make their feet like a deer’s feet.  As a deer can stand securely on unsteady ground we can stand securely in unsteady times. These words from Habakkuk convey his CONFIDENCE in God.  

    Verse to DATE the Word on March 19 (3/19) is Habakkuk 3:19.  It says, “The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.

    Joy does come in the morning.  Times may be dark and difficult but KEEP TRUSTING GOD!  HE IS YOUR STRENGTH!  

    Continue Strong with full CONFIDENCE in God,
    And remember to DATE THE WORD
  • Verse to DATE the Word on March 2 (3/2) is Habakkuk 3:2

    Verse to DATE the Word on March 2 (3/2) is Habakkuk 3:2

    Our verse to DATE the Word on March 2 (3/2/) is Habakkuk 3:2
    Habakkuk 3:2 says, “O LORD, I have heard your speech and was afraid; O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.”
    REVIVE US AGAIN OH LORD!

    As the Prophet Habakkuk hears from God the judgment that will be coming upon Judah he is greatly troubled.  He is AFRAID!!  Having heard the report He now PRAYS, praying a prayer for REVIVAL.  Knowing the wrath that is to come from Almighty God he prays for mercy.  

    As a new student at the Criswell Bible College in 1982 I had a personal evangelism class with the president of the school, Dr. Paige Patterson.  He gave us 7 verses a week to memorize and one of the earliest verses was Habakkuk 3:2.   I recall his admonition to be asking God for revival.  

    As a student, I also started reading sermons and one of the most impactful sermons came from Dr. Jerry Vines.  His message was a plea for revival and his text was Psalm 85:6. Psalm 85:6 says, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”   Dr. Vines pressed the point that we ask God for revival.

    As a student at Liberty Baptist College (later Liberty University), I heard numerous appeals for us to pray for revival to come to America.  Many chapel speakers used 2 Chronicles 7:14 for the text of their message to plead for us to seek revival.  2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 

    I am a believer in seeking God to revive His work!  I am a believer in asking God to revive His people. I am a believer in asking God to revive His church. I am a believer in asking God to revive ME!   

    Over the last few weeks, we have read of the “fires of revival” at Asbury University in Ky.  I, for one, find joy in hearing of God working and of God’s people responding.  May their lives never be the same!!

    Because of what has been happening at Asbury University I have noticed quite a few people weighing in on the topic of what is revival.   As I started out 40 years ago praying for revival, I thought it would be important to know what it might look like if God were to answer my prayers and the prayers of thousands of others.  I was helped in finding answers by Dr. Jerry Falwell as he preached one Sunday morning The Ten Distinguishing Marks of Revival.  I don’t have space here and you probably don’t have time to read all ten points but I will tell you that I have never forgotten the first point.  He said real revival happens when people PUT AWAY their foreign gods.  We were instructed to then look at three passages starting with Genesis 35:2.  Genesis 35:2 says, “And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. 
    We then went to Joshua 24:14  where Joshua said, “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!
    Then we turned to 1 Samuel 7:3-4. 1 Samuel 7:3 says, “Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”  4 So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.”

    If revival is happening and if it is to happen there will be REPENTANCE of worshiping false gods. The repentance will be followed up with a PUTTING AWAY – a renouncement – a removal of those false gods.  Then you will see once again the WORSHIP of the one and only TRUE GOD.  

    What is in your life that has become an idol?  Because of those idols, your love for God has diminished as your love for the idol has increased.  PUT AWAY those false idols and SERVE HIM only!  I plead with you to get the TRASH OUT!

    Verse to DATE the Word on March 2 (3/2/) is Habakkuk 3:2.  It says, “O LORD, I have heard your speech and was afraid; O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.”

    Keep seeking revival and (just a thought) ask God to start it first in you,

    Continue Strong,
    And remember to DATE THE WORD