Live by Faith

Our Love for God

God Commands Our Love, Respect, and Obedience:
Modeling God's Love

Habakkuk 1:2-4; 2:1-4 The Message

Justice Is a Joke

1 1-4 The problem as God gave Habakkuk to see it:
God, how long do I have to cry out for help
    before you listen?
How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!”
    before you come to the rescue?
Why do you force me to look at evil,
    stare trouble in the face day after day?
Anarchy and violence break out,
    quarrels and fights all over the place.
Law and order fall to pieces.
    Justice is a joke.
The wicked have the righteous hamstrung
    and stand justice on its head.
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2 What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst.
    I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon.
I’ll wait to see what God says,
    how he’ll answer my complaint.

Full of Self, but Soul-Empty

2-3 And then God answered: “Write this.
    Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
    so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness
    pointing to what’s coming.
It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait!
    And it doesn’t lie.
If it seems slow in coming, wait.
    It’s on its way. It will come right on time.
4 “Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—
    full of himself but soul-empty.
But the person in right standing before God
    through loyal and steady believing
    is fully alive, really alive.

For Reflection

Prophets describe the vision of what they see.  It is difficult for us to see the hidden purposes and functions of God and God's universe.  We tend to block our understandings of God's intentions because we are so self-absorbed.  It sometimes takes a prophet to awaken that spark in our souls that counsels us to have the patience and discernment to look beyond what interpreted in common ways to see the perfection in God's plan.

Pray

Pray and listen to the wisdom in your soul.  Pray and discover the patience to wait for God's plan to unfold. Pray and receive the key to see beyond the temporal truths and into the eternal realities.

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