When we are troubled by
questions and situations that we cannot understand, what should we
do? When people do things that we have difficulty explaining, what
action should we take? If we cannot comprehend why God does not do
anything about a circumstance we find ourselves in, what can we do
about it? Pray. We must simply pray. After hearing all the words from
God about the situation with his own people who were acting wickedly,
and then hearing God's solution to their wickedness by sending the
Chaldeans, Habakkuk begins his third and final chapter in his book
with this verse:
A prayer of Habakkuk
the prophet upon Shigionoth.
Habakkuk
begins to record his prayer. We are about to enter into a study of
the prayer of Habakkuk after he listened to God who had a plan for
his concerns all along. The Heavenly Father is God who created the
universe, made all things, and nothing is hid from His eyes. Whenever
we look into the prayers of one of his prophets, we should pay
particularly close attention to what is written. We will do so as we
view each verse within this prayer.
Let
us notice too that Habakkuk the prophet says this is a prayer “upon
Shigonoth.” Shigonoth is the
plural word for “Shiggaion” which according to Easton's
dictionary “The word denotes a lyrical poem composed
under strong mental emotion; a song of impassioned imagination
accompanied with suitable music; a dithyrambic ode.” In
other words, this prayer is spoken and sung out of Habakkuk's deepest
emotions, and when he shares the words with us, they will be from the
very core of his soul. Habakkuk now has clarity in his mind about
this issue with God, and he wants the whole world to know it.
We
all have troubling areas, and we will learn from the example of
Habakkuk that prayer, deep intercessory prayer is one of the best
postures for us in our times of difficulty. Perhaps today we should
act upon this idea as we approach the words of Habakkuk. Let us pray,
“Dear Heavenly
Father, we desire to hear from you, and as we study the words of your
prophet Habakkuk in the days ahead, may we learn together the
benefits of coming to you in prayer. We love you, Father, and thank
you for this opportunity. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.”
Next
time we will begin to discover the details within Habakkuk's prayer,
so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites,
www.amazon.com
; www.barnesandnobles.com
; download
to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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