SCRIPTURE
Habakkuk 1:5-17 (NRSV)
Look at the nations, and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.
For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
They all come for violence,
with faces pressing forward;
they gather captives like sand.
At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
and heap up earth to take it.
Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!
Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
You shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment;
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous,
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
The enemy brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
so he rejoices and exults.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine;
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
and destroying nations without mercy?
DEVOTION
These words give me tremendous comfort in times of trouble, "Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? You shall not die."
Isn't it grand to remember that God is from everlasting to everlasting? Isn't it thrilling to remember that God is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end? Doesn't it give you peace to know that there is NO-thing new under the sun?
The evil behavior and poor choices of humanity do not shock our God as if they had never been seen. The sinfulness of people does not surprise God, as if it had never been done before...
When trial, tribulation, or hardship befall me because of my own sin or the sin of others, I take heart in knowing that God knows what to do to make things right.
First and foremost, God sent Jesus to die on the cross to make atonement for my sin and gift me with eternal life...And that ultimately takes care of everything!
But, in addition to that great and eternal solution, God gives me solutions day by day! God provides for my every need--day by day! God saves me from myself and others--day by day!
How I love our God, for God is always good to me!
Take heart today! God has already overcome the world, by the blood of the Lamb!
Let us pray: Oh God, sometimes I think that you don't see the evil that befalls me, or that you do not care. But, today I am reminded that you are of old and you do not die. You have seen all and know all and NO-thing surprises or shocks you. You are the solution to all of my problems. JESUS is the band-aid for all that hurts me. I look to you as my only source of salvation. I love you and I pray that you will help me to share our love with others. I pray this in Jesus' Name, Amen.
INVITATION
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