A hymn of faith.
In a world full of uncertainty for business people (some may even say unfair) a song of FAITH is definitely what we need turned up LOUD!
Habakkuk 3:17-19 in my bible is titled ‘A hymn of faith’
This scripture starts with the word Though and then lists a bunch of unfavourable circumstances. It talks of trees not blossoming, no fruit on the vine, labour and efforts failing, fields not yielding any food, flocks being cut off from the fold, no herds in stalls. Right now you may be ‘seeing’ a whole bunch of this in your business. Your business may be ‘cut off’ from trading, you may see no profits coming in, infact your bottom line might be showing a big fat 0 or a whole bunch of numbers in the red. You may see areas of your business where there’s been a whole lot of labour and effort, but things aren’t working.
After all these unfavourable facts verse 18 responds with YET I will rejoice IN the Lord, I will JOY IN the God of my salvation.
The encouragement for you today is to holdfast to the THOUGH and YET conversation with God. Father, though (insert all your personal unfavourable circumstances) yet I will REJOICE. Friends JOY is our weapon when the enemy tries to discourage us and distract us with things we see in the natural.
The prophet Habakkuk lived in a time where the world was at war. His country had fallen from its heights to the depths of violent treatment of citizens, oppressive measures against the poor, collapse of the legal system, evil men in control, and words used describing the scene include iniquity, trouble, plundering, violence, strife, contention, law is powerless, justice never goes forth, wicked, perverse judgement proceeds. In some ways, you may think or feel that 2021 looks no different. But that is not our focus. If you stay in the ‘this is terrible’ headspace, depression and anxiety will come and JOY will be the first thing that leaves.
A couple of years ago, when I went through a season of losing my joy, it was declaring a scripture with a heart of humility that got me out of it. Isaiah 61:10. Check it out. Like this scripture in Habakkuk, the key to rejoicing and JOY is IN Him. We need to learn and discipline our minds and hearts to find our joy IN Him. He is our source of JOY. It’s not found in ourselves and our circumstances, it’s not found in others. We need to shift our focus!
Verse 18 in this Habakkuk scripture declares I will rejoice in the God of my SALVATION. As I wrote in the Art of waiting blog, God is our SAVIOUR, he wants to save us from our circumstances, it’s in his nature. We need to humble ourselves before Him and allow him to be the salvation of things in our lives and businesses. As business owners we need to let go of the reigns of control and allow Him to do His work. It’s always going to be better than our efforts in our own strength.
Verse 19 says ‘The Lord is my strength’ Strength ‘oz’ means strength, power, security, to be firm and strong. As business owners we need to be reminded that the strength and power of our businesses is in Him. Our security is in Him. It’s not in our strategies, and our budgets, and our leadership abilities. Our security can’t be found in what the government says we can and cannot do. Especially in the economic season we are currently in, this scripture shouts loud and true, it doesn’t take long before you realise we can’t rely on our own strengths, or the world’s system. It will always fail us. Jeremiah 17:5 says ‘Cursed is the man who trust in man and makes flesh his strength. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes.
Let’s make a decision to not trust in man, whether than man is ourselves or other people, let’s not make flesh our strength.
This Habbakuk scripture ends with He will make my feet like deers feet, and He will make me walk on my hills.
In the business world where ‘self made’ success is glorified, this scripture reminds us that God does all the making. As the world around us stresses and strives in trying to ‘make it all work out’ what will distinguish us as followers of Jesus is the effortless way we will stride and walk, gallop and fly above the circumstances.
Be blessed
