My dear friend Judy who passed away this month had given me a book some time ago to read and I never got to it. Since her passing, I decided to take the book out and read it.
It is called Habakkuk by Walter Chantry. Judy had read it before she passed it on to me and she had marked various passages with pencil that meant a lot to her. I'm glad she did. It's like having her right there telling me what stood out to her as she read the book.
I just finished the first chapter. Chantry gives the background and circumstances of the writing of Habakkuk. Habakkuk lived in time of moral decay much like ours. The prophet was asking why God did not act to bring about revival and reversal of the moral decay that was happening. Chantry points out that we often, like Habakkuk feel like God is tolerating the wickedness that surrounds us and is not listening to our prayers. However, he takes us to Romans 1 and shows us that the first wave of God's judgement has already begun. Three times in Romans 1 it says that God gave them up, speaking of those who persist in their evil ways. In other words, the first wave of judgement is God removing His hand from them to allow them to follow their evil passions to their logical end. We have been learning about this in church in recent weeks.
Walter Chantry points us to the need to pray for our nation. He says we often complain about the evils of our day but how many of us really get down on our knees and pray about the evils of our day? We pray about Aunt Susie's arthritis, and Uncle George's need for a job, but do we pray for the condition or our nation? This is rather convicting to me.
Although Walter Chantry has not hit on this point, I think we need to not only pray for our nation and the evils that are taking place there, but we also need to pray for our churches that they would be the salt and light they should be in this wicked and perverse generation. It goes right down to us personally, because after all, the church is made up of us, the people in it.
What are we doing within our churches to aid and support the ministry so that we can be effective in our witness in our communities? Not only do we need to pray for our nation's condition, but we need to pray the condition of our churches and the condition of our own hearts. Do we pray daily for our pastors and church leaders? Do we pray for their study time, for their personal time with God? Do we pray for protection for them from the attack of Satan or are we shamefully aiding the Evil One by stirring up discord within the ranks, complaining about other members and complaining because the preacher doesn't preach long enough or because he preaches too long? Do we find things to gripe about within the church? Perhaps we need to ask God to guard the door of our lips and go to Him in prayer over what bugs us. What kind of an example are we to other believers in this regard?
There are so many evils these days in our nation, our communities, our churches and in our own hearts. May we be like Habakkuk and cry out to God for mercy and intervention!
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