December 24
Today's Reading: Habakkuk 1; Revelation 15
Today's Thoughts: Being Bold in Prayer
I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. - Habakkuk 2:1
How many of us open our Bibles and search for the writings of Habakkuk? The most likely answer: not too many of us and not very often. I remember the first time I actually studied this short, three-chapter book. To this day I still quote chapter two, verse one, back to the Lord. Habakkuk tells the story of how he questioned what the Lord was doing with His people. It is a great illustration of how we can seek out the Lord's plans, reason with Him, and then fall at His feet when He answers us personally. However, in this case, the answer was not in favor of the people, Habakkuk stood in awe of God's awesome power and mercy.
As Christians we tend to think too much about what God wants from us. We spend a lot of time praying for the things that we think He wants us to pray. We hope that He will not be upset with us if we pray for the wrong things. And then there are times when we are just amazed that He answered our prayers at all. It is one thing to be thankful and grateful for the Lord's gracious gifts, but we need to consider and question why we are just surprised that He answered in the first place. Our relationship with the Lord should be stronger than that. The Lord wants us to not only pray for the things we want and need, but also He wants us to reasonwith Him, wrestle with Him, and be honest in our prayers. In Isaiah 1:18 the Lord says, "come and let us reason together." Habakkuk had questions and he was not afraid to reason with the Lord, even to the point that he states in this verse that he will stand, wait and watch for God to do something. Talk about boldness!
For each of us today, God wants us to be bold. He wants us to come to His throne of grace with boldness and receive the mercy He has freely given through His Son Jesus. God wants us to pray with that same boldness, asking, seeking and knocking to know His will. Is something on your heart today about which you are not being completely honest with the Lord? Do you have questions or maybe you are upset with the way things are going? Go to the Lord in boldness. Tell Him your thoughts and feelings then tell Him that you will "sit on the ramparts [watchtower]" and wait for His answer. Do not be afraid. You will see God's goodness, just as Habakkuk did. "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 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." (Habakkuk 3:18-19) Now that is a great promise!
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