By Jeff Denlinger, President of WorldVenture
Many years ago, in other tumultuous, chaotic, and dark days, the prophet Habakkuk bemoaned these words to God:
“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?
Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?
Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.” (Hab 1:2-4 ESV)
In reply to God’s first response to him, Habakkuk understood that “the righteous shall live by his faith.” (Hab 2:4 ESV)
We, too, hold tightly to our faith in God in every twist and turn in the journey of life in Christ.
These past months have been overwhelmingly full of sobering and intense issues crashing upon us with a seeming unrelenting pace which incite and require our attention, our prayers of lament, our petitions for wisdom, and our actions for engagement. It is not lost on me that whenever I begin the day with a perusal of my email, or social media, or the news, I can too easily bounce around without an anchor point.
One of my key takeaways from Isaiah 6 is that Isaiah’s present circumstances were not the whole story of his day. There really was something more important than the death of King Uzziah. It wasn’t until Isaiah saw the Lord that he gained comprehension that reality is anchored in God who is seated on his throne, high and exalted. God alone is majestically-holy and sovereign over all. In that reality, all our daily circumstances, from the mundane to the sublime, from the joyous to the sorrowful, from the private to the public are in full view and dominion of the One who described himself as:
“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast
love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7 ESV)
Like the prophets of old, we throw ourselves upon the mercies of God that we might live every moment of every day fully alive to God who is seated upon his throne and that forgiveness of sin is found in Jesus and that God is reconciling us to himself and to others! Hallelujah and Amen!
Our pursuit of drawing near to God requires us to ask, “God, our world has come unglued in recent months. Where are you on the move and how do you want us to join you? Here we are, send us!”
Reset : (verb) : to set again or anew: How will you reset?
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