Yet I Will Rejoice

“Yet I will wait patiently…though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk 3:16b-18

I tend to be a worrier. I also tend to be a perfectionist. Together they can be a very bad combination.

          I like things to be the way I want, when I want and if circumstances don’t cooperate then I get down and cry a lot. Almost any given situation can be the end of the world to me. I can accept that God allows things for His purposes. However, I don’t do very well with accepting His timing for resolving the situation.

          A friend once said there was a crisis in my life every week, or sometimes every day of the week. It’s not supposed to be like that for the Christian. If I leave my prayer time and don’t feel at peace I have not left my burdens at the feet of Jesus. I tend to talk to Him a while, pick up my burdens and walk away with them. If I truly trust Him to take care of them I will be able to walk away at peace.

          I have a hand-painted clock which has hung in my kitchen for thirty-five years. It says, “God’s Timing is Perfect.” I wonder how many times I have looked at it and read those words and never let them sink in.

          Joseph was seventeen years old when he was sold into slavery in Egypt. According to the notes in the margin of my Bible, it was about twenty-three years before his father and brothers moved to Egypt with their families. Twenty-three years that he waited and all the while his father thought he was dead. The woman in John 8 had been “subject to bleeding for twelve years.” Both are very long times to wait for a prayer to be answered.

          Habakkuk talks about a time when nothing was going right, yet he said he would wait patiently; he would rejoice in the Lord and be joyful. His words are worth learning from.

           What prayer are you waiting to have answered and despairing over? Do you leave your prayer time and still feel anxious?

           Choose today to leave the burden at Jesus’ feet when you leave your time of prayer. Choose to trust not only that He will do it, but that He will do it at the right time. Choose to go on your way rejoicing.

Copyright by Norma Gail Thurston Holtman & http://2MefromHim.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. Do not use without express written permission of the author.