What’s on Your List?

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Elizabeth Welte in Victory Call

Here was Habakkuk’s list:

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls… Habakkuk 3:17

What is on your list?

Though there be:

No groceries in the pantry,

Nor clothes that fit for summer,

No funds in the checking account,

Nor job to rectify,

No vacation on the horizon,

Nor friends to have for tea,

No good news from the doctor,

Nor health insurance to cover the bills…

No one to curb the loneliness,

Nor others that understand…

We all have things we could put on our “no” list. Those things we wish we had but simply don’t.  Some have a longer lists than others.  The more we sit and stare at our list, the more unsettled, discouraged, and depressed we become.

I love Habakkuk’s response despite his long list:

YET

…yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
   God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk 3:18-19

Habakkuk shifted his eyes from the circumstances to the God of His salvation which caused his heart to rejoice. His circumstances may not have changed, but he was changed.

Perhaps you have only one thing on your list:

• A prodigal child
• A foreclosure
• A cancer diagnosis
• An alcoholic in the family
• A lost job
• A divorce
• A miscarriage

…yet we rejoice in the Lord;
we have joy in the God of our salvation.
   God, the Lord, is our strength;
he makes our feet like the deer’s;
he makes us tread on our high places. (Modified)

As we shift our eyes from our circumstances, to the God of our salvation, we rejoice in Him. Our circumstances may not change, but we are changed.

 

Written by Diane Hunt: Diane Hunt serves on the board of America’s Keswick and is the Executive Director & CEO of Changed Choices, a Christian non-profit in North Carolina. She is also a biblical counselor and women’s event speaker. For more information about having Diane speak at your next event please contact her at dhunt@americaskeswick.org.

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This Week’s Verse to Memorize: “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.” – Hebrews 8:1-2