Wait for It…

The Book of Habakkuk begins with the prophet in serious complaint mode. He’s basically reprimanding God for what he sees as God’s slow response to some serious problems. “Can’t you hear me? Don’t you see this mess?” is basically what he’s saying. God lets him rant a while, because a gracious God will do that, and then points out some things. Habakkuk didn’t especially like what he heard and got back to complaining. We don’t have space to dissect the whole book here, but God lets Habakkuk know that He has a plan, He knows how to execute that plan, and it will ultimately bring the very things Habakkuk desires. However, God doesn’t just know the plan, He knows the timetable, and that is so often what many of us have trouble with.”

God told Habakkuk this: “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” (Habakkuk 2:3). When God has an important role for you in His purposes, only He knows when the right time is. The vision has an “appointed time,” and our job, even if it seems slow, even if it lingers, is the one thing we usually don’t want to hear about… we must wait for it!

Finally, Habakkuk gets it. He understands that God is in control and that he needs to trust Him no matter what things look like. In fact, he is so overwhelmed by his understanding of God’s sovereign power, Habakkuk begins to sing. The entire third chapter is a song of praise and rejoicing. Even though the nation was about to be judged, and there would be a tremendous price to pay for the disobedience the people had shown in the face of God’s warnings, Habakkuk could now see past that and he knew that God’s purposes would prevail—even amid chaos and war and captivity.

As our verse today indicates, there might be no crops and no livestock—none of the things we would normally depend on—but there is always reason to rejoice in the Lord! Maybe the wait is beginning to seem a little long to you today. You know God has a plan but you just wish it would hurry up and happen. Now is the exact time to trust God with all your heart, to take him at His Word, and to rejoice that He never fails to come through at just the right time. Until then, whatever it is God has promised you, with joy in your heart, wait for it!