Habakkuk 1-3 Trusting God Through Doubt

Habakkuk had some doubts about what God was doing.  He felt that God was ignoring his fervent prayers for his nation.  Suddenly, God answered him!  He said, “ …. Be amazed and shocked.  I will do something in your lifetime that you won’t believe even when you are told about it.”  God told Habakkuk what He was up to, but not why.  “He doesn’t owe us any explanations, but He does graciously reveal Himself and His work to those who seek Him,” my commentary said.

Habakkuk worried that he was seeing inconsistency on the part of God.  After all, He was using wicked people to punish His own people for their sins.  “If you believe in God, you sometimes wonder why He allows certain things to happen.  But keep in mind that there’s a difference between doubt and unbelief.  Like Habakkuk, the doubter questions God and may even debate with God, but the doubter doesn’t abandon God.  But unbelief is rebellion against God, a refusal to accept what He says and does.  Unbelief is an act of the will, while doubt is born out of a troubled mind and a broken heart,” my commentary said.

Habakkuk decides to trust God despite his lack of understanding and his doubts.  He ends by saying, “I hear these things, and my body trembles … But I will wait patiently … Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines.  There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields.  There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns.  But I will still be glad in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Savior.  The Lord God is my strength.  He makes me like a deer that does no stumble so I can walk on the steep mountains.”

Thank You for taking me through everything with Josh’s adoption so that I could learn  that for myself, Father.  Thank You for teaching me the four words to say when I doubt:  “I trust You, God.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Nahum 1-3 -- Jealousy, Vengeance, And Anger From God

This book starts out, “The Lord is a jealous God who punishes; the Lord punishes and is filled with anger.  The Lord punishes those who are against Him, and He stays angry with His enemies.”

It’s very easy to say, “Something’s not right here!  God is love.  My God wouldn’t do that!  I wouldn’t want Him being that way with me!”  My commentary helped me see that what is written in the Bible is both true and good.  Jealousy, vengeance, and anger are good parts of God’s character, and here’s why:

“Jealousy is a sin if it means being envious of what others have and wanting to possess it, but it’s a virtue if it means cherishing what we have and wanting to protect it … when you are jealous over someone you love, you’re zealous to protect the relationship.  Since God made everything and owns everything, He is envious of no one, but since He is the only true God, He is jealous over His glory, His name, and the worship and honor that are due to Him alone … He will not share His people with false gods … God’s jealous love burned against Nineveh’s pride and willful breaking of His law.”

“In Scripture, vengeance is usually presented as a sin … But a holy God cannot see people flouting His law and do nothing about it … When God takes vengeance by judging people, it’s because He is a holy God and is jealous (zealous) for His holy Law.”

“God’s anger isn’t like human anger, which can be selfish and out of control.  His is a holy anger, a righteous indignation against all that defies His authority and disobeys His law.  God’s people ought to exercise a holy anger against sin … Nahum invites us (as Paul put it) to ‘consider the goodness and severity of God.’”

Psalm 115:8 says that people become like the god they worship, for what we believe determines how we behave.

Father, forgive me for backing up as I first read this, wondering if Nahum was ascribing traits to You that were unkind at best.  Had I truly known Nineveh’s sin, I would never have wondered.  You are good, and that goodness includes jealousy, vengeance, and anger for those who disobey Your laws and defy Your authority – even me.  Help me to always agree with You and Your Word.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Micah 5-7 -- God's Amazing Love For Sinners

As Micah finished giving God’s message, the people began to ask what they could do to remove their sin.  “Ignoring His commandments resulted in a hart heart that deliberately rebelled against God’s will,” my commentary said.  Do we even realize that we are doing the same thing today?  They needed to confess their sins, yet they asked what they could do to get rid of them.  “Their request shows how shallow their spiritual life really was and that they were ignorant of the enormity of their sin and the high cost of forgiveness.”  We are little different today.  “Doing penance without truly repenting and trusting God’s mercy only multiplies the sin and deadens the conscience,” my commentary added.

It’s vitally important that we come clean with ourselves.  “The only people God can save are lost people; the only people God can forgive are guilty people.  If we see ourselves as God sees us, then we can by faith become what He wants us to become.”

I loved the last few verses:  “There is no God like You.  You forgive those who are guilty of sin; You don’t look at the sins of Your people who are left alive.  You will not stay angry forever, because You enjoy being kind.  You will have mercy on us again; You will conquer our sins.  You will throw away all our sins into the deepest part of the sea.”

Father, forgive me for sinning against You and Your great love for me.  Do this for me, Father – every day.  And help me to trust You more so that I will not sin against You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Micah 3-4 -- The Hazards Of Not Listening To God

The religious and civilian leaders of Israel were leading them to sin.  Their false prophets were about to see their visions grow dark.  They were making them up anyway, seeing good things for those willing to pay them and calling for holy wars against those who wouldn’t.

Although God was promising them that they’d go into captivity for their willful sinning and rebellion, He also promised that one day the Temple Mount would be miraculously raised up and even Gentiles would come to hear what the Lord would say.  Nations would stop fighting wars or even training soldiers.  There will even be an end to terrorism and the fear it causes.

There were so many promises of God taking action Himself in these verses – gathering, keeping alive, making strong, bringing together.  If people can’t see God at work today, they certainly will at that time.  Right now, “They don’t know what the Lord is thinking; they don’t understand His plan.”  But someday they will, and they will be amazed.

Father, I think back to how I used to wonder why You’d left and were no longer at work in the world, but You’d blinded my eyes, just as You did theirs, until I returned to You.  Now I see You at work every day.  Please help others to do the same.  Show up and reveal what You are doing so that people everywhere will look up to You and know You are the Holy God.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Micah 1-2 -- Judgment, With Consolation & Hope

God gave Micah a message for both kingdoms.  They’d conveniently listened to false prophets who were only encouraging them to sin.  They’d kept worshiping idols and sinned their way right into defeat.

These were God’s chosen people.  He gave them privilege.  “Privilege brings responsibility, and responsibility brings accountability,” my commentary reminded us.  They’d been infected with materialism, caused by covetousness – something God had forbidden – and now “they would see everything they lived for and sinned to acquire be taken over by the enemy and wasted.”

They’d altered their religion as well.  They thought they could simply go through the motions and it would count as worship.  Their hearts weren’t in it, except to further their own interests.  Micah’s message revealed this, but they rejected it, and my commentary said, “The way we respond to God’s Word indicates our relationship to the Lord … The nation didn’t learn from its history; the people repeated the same sins as their ancestors but thought they would avoid the same consequences.”

Micah was to expose sin and announce judgment.  But he also was to provide consolation and hope.  If he only consoled the, and didn’t preach repentance, he was only giving false hope.  If his message included no hope, it only created hopelessness because of their sin.  God gave him a message of hope, but that hope wasn’t going to come quickly.

My commentary says that the message for us today is “to deal with our sins of covetousness, selfishness, and willingness to believe religious lies.  We must abandon soft religion that pampers our pride and makes it easy for us to sin.”

Father, help me to take to heart Your Word today, for my own life and for the lives of those I love.  I read that I should expect sinners to sin and that I should not be offended when someone sins against me, but instead I should open caring arms to them.  Help me to do that, Father.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hosea 14 -- God Heals Our Backsliding

“Though His people may turn away from Him, God will not abandon them, even though He disciplines them, for He is true to His covenant and His promises.  ‘If we are faithless, He remains faithful,’” my commentary said.  And this last chapter of Hosea offers new hope to those who have stepped away from God.  He even gives us the words to say to invoke His forgiveness.

“God had every reason to reject His sinful people, but He chose to offer them forgiveness … They needed to bring sincere words of repentance and ask God for His gracious forgiveness:  ‘I will forgive them for leaving Me and will love them freely, because I am not angry with them anymore.’”  He sees our pitiful condition, and His love for us moves Him to abate His anger and draw us to Himself in love.

My commentary also says, “God restores the penitent to spiritual health and heals their backsliding.”  It’s almost as if our own decision to sin against Him is like a festering wound, and God washes it clean, removes the sin infection, and seals the skin to prevent re-infection.  Our backsliding was our choosing to sin, and He even heals that – causing us to not want to sin again because we are blown away by such love!

The last verse helps us to see what it takes to be a wise person and an understanding person – to know God’s desires for us and His commands that give us freedom from sin, and to take them to heart.  He also “presents us with only two alternatives:  rebel against the Lord and continue to stumble, or return to the Lord and walk securely in His ways. ‘Good people will live by following them, but those who turn against God die because of them.’”

Father, thank You for forgiving me for leaving You years ago.  Thank You for placing within my heart a desire never to get into that mode again.  But like all flesh, I am tempted at times to test those boundaries and to relive old sins.  Don’t let me go there.  Speak loudly and clearly to me.  And Father, verse 3 says, “You show mercy to orphans.”  Remember those two boys who were orphans.  You placed them in my home and gave them a father.  Show mercy to them when they sin.  Show them the way back.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hosea 12-13 -- It Finally Comes To This ... In Love

What God was about to do to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, wouldn’t be good, but it was necessary.  My commentary said that they’d refused every other manifestation of His love, so now discipline was all that was left.  It wasn’t punishment; it was chastening.  “Chastening is a loving parent disciplining his child in order to perfect his character and build his endurance … chastening has to do with love.”

Hosea mentioned Jacob, rather than Abraham, for a reason.  “During most of his life, Jacob struggled with himself, with others, and with the Lord, and until he surrendered to God at Jabbok, he never really walked by faith.  God had to discipline him to bring him to that place of surrender.”

Jacob had met God at Bethel, and later he returned to Bethel for a new spiritual beginning.  “The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”

One of the reasons Hosea listed for Israel’s discipline was ingratitude.  “The Jews were glad for what God had done for their forefathers, but they didn’t really show Him sincere appreciation … In their prosperity, they became proud and turned away from God to idols.”

In 13:14, God says, “I will show them no mercy.”  The Living Bible says, “I will not relent.”  This wasn’t God saying that He no longer loved His people.  His discipline was another manifestation of His love for the.

Father, help me not to again get so far from You by my sin that Your discipline becomes necessary.  Remind me to be attentive to the little nudges You give me daily so I won’t need the whip.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford