It’s not how you start, but how you finish in life that has the most impact.  I pray that we all desire to finish well!  As followers of Jesus we are people of faith - faith that endures during troubled times.  We are certainly experiencing troubled times.  Troubling times for our world, our country, our families and the state of the church at large.  What if these troubling times are allowed to bring about the greater good, that is, God’s will for our lives?   We say that we have a godly burden for these troubling times, but do we really?  We say we have a burden to see the Lord send revival to the church, that we have a burden to see our country and world turn to the one true living God and the savior of their eternal souls - Jesus, but do we really?  Do we have such a godly burden to pray, “Lord at any cost?!”

The prophet Habakkuk battled this problem.  He had lived during a time of revival and he started to witness a time that God’s people and nation slip into lethargy and sin.  He lived through a time of revival followed by a time of spiritual decline, and the Bible says he had a “burden” for what he saw!

He cried out O LORD, “How long…why?!” (cf. Habakkuk 1)

We have those same questions today.  If we are earnest, if we have a godly burden for these times, we need to be prepared for the answer.

Well, God gave Habakkuk an answer.  You have heard the saying “too good to be true?!”   Well, God’s answer was “too bad to be true!”

God was going to bring about revival but not in the way Habakkuk had in mind! (cf. Habakkuk 1: 5-11)   We are not unlike Habakkuk, if we are honest with ourselves, we question God’s way of doing things and His timing.   Like Jeremiah at times we say, “My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord.”  But like Habakkuk and Jeremiah, if when our faith is tested we rest upon the sovereignty of our creator, His goodness, His mercy, His grace, His enduring Word - we will “recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.  Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; the LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in Him!”

(cf. Lamentations 3: 21-24)

Yes, we have a living faith for these troubled times!  May we have a godly burden also that prays “Lord, at any cost thy will be done!”  Let us, with God’s help, be determined to finish well! 

In Christ Alone,

Pastor Rodney