THE CODE 18 September 2024 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida edition “O Lord, how long shall I cry and You will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). This question asked by Habakkuk was born out of a - "burden” that consumed him (Habakkuk 1:1). He faced a moral dilemma. How could a holy and loving God who had called Israel the "apple of His eye" (Deuteronomy 32:10) now allow the pagan, godless Babylonians to besiege and ultimately destroy the city of Jerusalem? If we are honest, most of us have felt like this at one time or another. We, too, have been burdened by what seems the inactivity of our God on our behalf. We, too, have bombarded the throne of God's grace with our cries and prayers for deliverance, only to feel as if they were bouncing right back at us from off the ceiling. Yes, at one time or another, who of us has not prayed, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear?" If a good and all-powerful God really does exist, why doesn't He answer our prayers for what we are convinced are good and right requests? Why does He continue to allow so much evil and suffering? It is the age-old skeptics' argument — either God is all-powerful but not all good (therefore He does not stop evil in its tracks), or He is all good but not all-powerful (thus He is powerless to stop the evil swirling around us). This seems on the surface so logical. If, in fact, He is really all powerful, then He could eliminate all evil, pain and suffering in an instant. Let's suppose for a moment He were to decree to do that, to eradicate all evil at midnight this evening. But is that such a wonderful idea? If He were to do that, do you realize that not one of us reading these words, not to mention the one typing them now, would be around at 12:01 a.m.? Jeremiah, the very one who warned of the coming captivity in Babylon, reminds us that our hearts are “deceitful... and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). I, for one, am extremely grateful that “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities" (Psalm 103:10). God has not stood idly by. In fact, He has done something dramatic about the problem of evil in our world. He did the costliest and the most loving thing possible; He sent and surrendered His own Son to die in the place of sinful human beings like us. Habakkuk left us a book in the Hebrew Bible consisting of only three brief chapters, but in them the prophet discovers and reveals to us that the real issue at hand is not evil, but the direction of our own prayer focus. Focusing on circumstances Some people place their prayer focus on their present circumstances. This is Habakkuk’s consuming prayer focus in the first chapter of this book. It is expressed in His prayer, “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear?” Again, at one time or another, his cry has been our own. “Where are You, God? Why don’t You do something?” When unfair circumstances are swirling all around us and we place the focus of our prayers on them, it leads us to ask these questions that have no satisfactory answers. There is a better way to focus in prayer than by placing all our attention on our circumstances and situation? Focusing through circumstances Some people place their prayer focus through their present circumstances. The prophet changes his focus in chapter 2 when he climbs up on a watchtower to "watch to see what He will say to me" (Habakkuk 2:1). He begins to focus his prayers through his present challenges instead of on them. Perspective is vital in our prayer life. Habakkuk began to look at the issue at hand from God's perspective and not his own. This was the secret of Joseph's prayer focus in Genesis, when his brothers sold him into slavery and a series of difficult situations ensued. From the human perspective, nothing that was happening to him could be good or fair in any manner. Jealousy is wrong. Betrayal by your own brothers is wrong. Being sold as a slave is wrong. Being thrown in prison on a trumped-up charge is wrong. But when he was revealed to his brothers, he looked them in the eye and said, "Do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves ... for God sent me before you to preserve life" (Genesis 45:5). He added, "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good" (50:20). How could he say this? His prayer focus was through his present circumstances, not on them. Placing his prayer focus through his circumstance led Habakkuk to conclude chapter 2 saying, "The Lord is in His holy temple" (Habakkuk 2:20). His focus led him to understand that God had not abdicated His throne, that in and through it all, He was still in charge. Focusing beyond circumstances Finally, some people place their prayer focus beyond their present circumstances. We find the prophet closing his book with these words: "Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines... the olive may fail... the fields yield no food... the flock may be cut off...no herd in the stalls... Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:17-18). This is the same man who, three brief chapters earlier, was shaking his fist in the face of God and blaming Him for his desperate dilemma. What changed? In a word, focus; his prayer focus. The same thing can happen to you who are tempted to question, accuse and even blame God for what may feel like His coldness to you. Stop focusing your prayers on your circumstance and put your prayer focus through them. If you will do this, you will begin to focus your prayers beyond your present problems. Then you, like Habakkuk, can find the comfort only God can bring to your heart. Taken from The Prayer Code by O.S. Hawkins. Copyright © 2021 by Dr. O.S. Hawkins. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. O. S. Hawkins is the chancellor of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served pastorates, including the First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, for more than 25 years. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, he has a BBA from Texas Christian University and his MDiv and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. For almost a quarter of a century, he served as president of GuideStone Financial Resources, with assets under management of $20 billion, serving 250,000 pastors, church staff members, missionaries, doctors, university professors, and other workers in various Christian organizations with their investment, retirement and benefit service needs. He is the author of more than 40 books and regularly speaks to business groups and churches nationwide. All of the author’s royalties and proceeds from the Code series support Mission:Dignity. You can learn more about Mission:Dignity by visiting MissionDignity.org. - Dr. O.S. Hawkins - Chancellor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary A Prayer of Desperation
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