I Will Rejoice in the Lord

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Disappointing relationships, failed businesses, crumbling careers, dwindling bank accounts, failing bodies – all these, and many other things are difficulties that make a Christ follower stop and assess what is of real value.

An Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk, had to do just that. He witnessed the collapse of nearly everything he held dear. Yet through it all—the loss, the failure, and the disappointment—he was able to differentiate the precious from the fleeting and vacuous.

He even came to a place where he could say that if everything around him took a nosedive, he would still rejoice in his God. No fruit on the tree; no fruit on the vine; no reproduction from his herds; none of that would inhibit his joyful heart in the Lord. Remarkable! He was able to face the fact that he could neither control the yield of his trees or vines, nor regulate the output of his herds. But he could control one thing; his response to God. So he chose to praise the Lord.

Christ followers know that as well. We look past our worldly concerns and understand that we have many reasons to praise Him.

Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be 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)