The God Who Meets Me

The prophet Habakkuk dialogues with God bringing Him his honest questions that are searching for answers amidst the complexities of his own day.   At the end of the short book given Habakkuk’s name, the prophet expresses his confidence in the God he dialogues with, the God he doesn’t always understand, but the God he can still trust.  Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!  The Sovereign Lord is my strength!  He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. I am no farmer, vegetarian, fruit, or otherwise.  I have only a vague understanding of economics and the interweaving aspects of the financial ups and downs from the farmer to the retailer to the lofty CEO.  I do understand though, or rather, attemptto understand, my own life.  

There are no blossoms when I watch loved ones and friends struggle, and my own desperation to help seems to only find barely discernible or totally feeble steps to build those bridges of encouragement.  Nothingness is seen when anger erupts, relationships shift, and dreams and expectations fall apart.  Failure marks the choices of others, others I cannot control.  Emptiness comes at the end of a day that needed to accomplish much more, and as days grow into weeks, my own plans lie barren.  Death of hope can pervade my spirit.  

Very recently, on top of everything else that was going on, I had planned and organized, even enlisted the help of others, and suddenly I was faced with needs that weren’t met, and a huge question in the pit of my anxiety, “God, what are You doing???”   And in my nothingness and seeming failure, my God met me in incredible ways and turned barrenness into blossoms and fruition, giving a song of encouragement and joy I could pass on to others.  The singular event would perhaps have been little in itself, but it was “on top of everything else,” and I was overwhelmed, and God met me.  That Sundaymorning in church we sang still more assurance of our God who cares and who meets us.  Oh no, He never lets go, through the calm and through the storm; oh no, He never lets go in every high and every low; oh no, He never lets go; He never lets go of me. ...  Even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life, I won't turn back, I know He is near. ...  I will fear no evil. ... I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on, a glorious light beyond all compare.  And there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes, I will live to know Him here on this earth.

Even in the busyness or the darkness or the heaviness of my days, my own very complex world, Habakkuk’s words are true.  God does give His strength.  He gives the enablement to walk the valleys and the hills, the deserts and the wildernesses, of my own life.  He hasn’t lost control – He is the sovereign God whose heart of love and understanding is constantly present with me, unfailingly always.  And I have reason to sing with joy simply because my God has met me.

                                                                                 – Bev

(Related Bible reading: Habakkuk 3:17-19)