{"id":19083,"date":"2018-06-09T08:18:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T12:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=19083"},"modified":"2018-06-09T08:19:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T12:19:23","slug":"saturday-short-how-do-we-get-from-o-lord-how-long-to-yet-i-will-rejoice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=19083","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Short – Getting From “O Lord, How Long?” …to “Yet, I Will Rejoice”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Slideshare; Sammie G. Smith<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a week.<\/p>\n

One of those where you’re praying hard, and yet, at every turn, you’re not sure God is on the same page…or you, with Him.<\/p>\n

On happy, normalish, carefreeish weeks, we skip along, through time in the Word, time in prayer, time with friends and family. Even time at work and play. God’s got this, right?<\/p>\n

Then there are weeks like this…no end in sight on some struggles. It is easy to wonder if we have lost favor with our heavenly Father. It’s way too easy to cry out to God, like the prophet Habakkuk did:<\/p>\n

O Lord<\/span>, how long shall I cry for help,<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and you will not hear?<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong> – Habakkuk 1:2a<\/a><\/p>\n

I am so grateful to God that even His “little faith” children are beloved. He is a good, good Father. That isn’t just some praise song embedded in my brain. That is what I’ve come to know through decades of following Him…ever how imperfectly.<\/p>\n

The Holy Scripture also reveals His character and the journey of His children over and over. We can know and anticipate that there will be weeks like this…even years like this for some…through His Word.<\/p>\n

What else we can know is that God is present in all of this. We also know that, as frail humanity, we cannot possibly know or see or explain the thinking or activity of God. His ways are not our ways.<\/a><\/p>\n

Trust comes to play in weeks like mine. Truthfully, it comes with wrestling before the Lord in prayer and staying in His Word and the company of His people.<\/p>\n

In the brief narrative of Habakkuk<\/a>, as he struggled in prayer with God, he went from complaining to worshipping.<\/p>\n

Though the fig tree should not blossom,<\/span><\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>nor fruit be on the vines,<\/span><\/span><\/em>
\nthe produce of the olive fail<\/span><\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and the fields yield no food,<\/span><\/span><\/em>
\nthe flock be cut off from the fold<\/span><\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and there be no herd in the stalls,<\/span><\/span><\/em>
\nyet I will rejoice in the Lord<\/span>;<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>I will take joy in the God of my salvation.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong>
\n God<\/span>, the Lord, is my strength;<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>he makes my feet like the deer’s;<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong>he makes me tread on my high places.<\/em> <\/strong>– Habakkuk 3:17-19<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This has been a hard week. Most of the situations continue unresolved. God continues quiet to my dull ears. Still…He speaks. In ways that I can hear.<\/p>\n

Habakkuk was the topic of reading in my read-through-the-Bible calendar for yesterday. I read through – from the first verse of his cry almost against God to the last verses of his restored peace and joy with God. I read through…and God did the same to my own heart.<\/p>\n

Are my circumstances changed today? No. My heart is changed. Even last night, I was recounting, to my mom-in-law, one joyful finding. It was an ultrasound followup on a potential problem for our in utero<\/em> granddaughter who turns out to be growing and wonderfully healthy after all. And my Godly mom-in-law’s response? “Praise God, another answer to prayer.”<\/p>\n

Another answer to prayer…<\/p>\n

This morning I am rejoicing in the Lord. Is everything made right? Not yet. Not that I can see…but I know it will be.\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Ben Steed, Precept Austin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Slideshare; Sammie G. Smith It’s been a week. One of those where you’re praying hard, and yet, at every turn, you’re not sure God is on the same page…or you, with Him. On happy, normalish, carefreeish weeks, we skip along, through time in the Word, time in prayer, time with friends and family. … Continue reading Saturday Short – Getting From “O Lord, How Long?” …to “Yet, I Will Rejoice”<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5628,690,1447,1705,794,3976,50,5221,903,317,433,761,887,1517,3574,1938,1456,610,1002,32,203,946],"tags":[614,798,581,734,648,3548,1837,49],"class_list":["post-19083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anxiety","category-babies-children","category-bible","category-conversations","category-faithfulness","category-fear","category-god","category-god-the-father","category-grace","category-lessons-learned","category-pray","category-redeeming-restoring","category-remembering","category-rest","category-saturday-short","category-spiritual-warfare","category-steadfast-love","category-thanksgiving-or-gratefulness","category-transformational","category-walk-with-god","category-word-of-god","category-worship","tag-answered-prayer","tag-faithfulness-2","tag-habakkuk","tag-love-of-god","tag-prayer","tag-saturday-short","tag-word-of-god","tag-worship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-4XN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19083"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19093,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19083\/revisions\/19093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}