God is at work for you...

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This was on Nancy DeMoss a few days ago... LONG BUT WORTH IT IF YOU ARE NOT SEEING GOD MOVING. Sometimes we think that because God has not done what we wanted Him to do, what we expected Him to do, that therefore He wasn’t listening to us. Like those little children, we say, “God, aren’t You listening to me?” or, “You aren’t listening to me.” As we’re studying the first part of the book of Habakkuk, we’re seeing that Habakkuk has accused God of not listening to him, not listening to his cry. But as we move forward in this passage today, we realize that God has been listening all along. And God responds to the honest and earnest cry of his prophet. God is not silent. The fact that God answers at all—as we’ll see He does in verse five of chapter one—the fact that God answers is evidence that He has been listening to His prophet’s prayers. Habakkuk has begun this story, this exchange, by saying, “Lord, how long will I cry out to You about the things that are going on around me? How long will I pray and You won’t do anything? And why are You letting all these things happen? Why is all this strife and violence and contention and destruction going on among Your people? You’re idly looking at it. You’re seeing what goes on, but You don’t do anything about it. You don’t seem to be listening.” Now, in verse 5, God finally responds to Habakkuk’s prayer. He says to His servant, “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” God says, “Look. Look among the nations see.” That verb look and the verb to see—in the Hebrew, those verbs are in the plural. God is not just speaking to Habakkuk here. He’s speaking to all of His people, His collective people, and He is saying, “You all.” Not just Habakkuk, but all of you. Look and see.” God is saying to His servants—Habakkuk and His other people—“Broaden your perspective. Look among the nations and see.” God is saying, “Your vision is not big enough. You’ve been too centered in on your own specific circumstances and situation. You need to look among the nations. Your view is too narrow.” You see, so often we can only see our little piece of the whole picture. We see our health, our issues, our family, our church, our country, our circumstances; and we get totally engrossed in what is happening to us. But God is saying, “Lift your eyes up and see the bigger picture. Don’t be so consumed with your own personal situation.” God cares about His glory, the destiny of this planet. God is always at work in this world to accomplish His bigger purposes. What is happening in our lives is just one little, microscopic piece of a much bigger whole. And we’re going to be discouraged and frustrated as long as we keep our eyes just on what is happening around us. We want to always be asking, “Lord, how does this fit into Your bigger picture? How does it fit into the whole? Give me perspective.” Look among the nations and see. Then He says, “Wonder and be astounded.” If we could see what God sees and know what God knows, we would wonder and be astounded. That word astounded means to be dumbfounded, awestruck. We would be amazed if we could see what God sees and know what God knows about what is happening in this world, from His point of view. God’s perspective is so much greater than ours, so much different than ours. If we could just get eyes to see. Remember that servant of Elisha who saw the home where they were staying surrounded by the Aramean army, and he freaked out? He got scared to death. Elisha prayed, “God, open his eyes so he can see what is really going on.” And the servant saw the angels of God, the warriors, the chariots of fire, surrounding the enemy (2 Kings 6:15-17, paraphrase). Once the servant had eyes to see spiritual realities, he was amazed! He was no longer in fear—no longer discouraged or depressed. If we could see spiritual realities as God sees them, we would wonder. We would be amazed. We would be dumbfounded, astounded. Now, those little words look and see—again, when you’re studying the Scripture, look for repeated words. You can’t help but notice in the book of Habakkuk that the words look and see are repeated many times. In fact, nine times in the first 18 verses! Look, see, look, see. “Open your eyes,” God is saying. So when you hear about wars—or famines or perils or tsunamis or hurricanes or earthquakes or plagues or traffic problems or anything—know that God is doing something in this world to advance His kingdom, to promote His glory. Look among the nations and see and say, “God, what are You doing?” Ask God to give you eyes to see from His vantage point—to see your family, to see your church, to see your neighborhood, to see our world, to see our government, to see other countries—to see them from God’s point of view. We’re going to see in this book the sovereignty of God over all the nations. We’re going to see that God judges wicked nations, but that God has a heart of compassion and mercy and longing that the nations would repent and come to faith in Christ. Now, what does God want Habakkuk to see? Well, look at the second half of verse 5: “For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” God says, “I am doing a work in your days.” If you’ve been listening to the previous sessions in this series, you know that Habakkuk was complaining that God wasn’t doing anything. “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save?” (1:2). Lord, why aren’t You doing anything? God seemed indifferent. God seemed passive. God seemed inactive. And God says to Habakkuk, “I am doing a work in your days. I am not passive. I am not indifferent. I am not inactive.” Can I suggest to you that God is always at work? God’s never asleep. We sleep; He never slumbers or sleeps. God is always at work in every era, in every circumstance, in every season, in every situation of life. God is doing a work in our day. And God says, “Look. Open your eyes. Look at the spiritual realities. Take it by faith, if you can’t see it with your own eyes, that I am doing a work in your day.” God is at work. God is always at work. Even when it appears that He is silent, that He is passive, that He is absent. Even when we cannot see what He is doing. Even when we do not know what He is doing, God is at work. This has become one of my favorite phrases in the book of Habakkuk: “I am doing a work in your day.” Believe it. Take it by faith. And we’ll see, in the book of Habakkuk, that’s the only way you’re going to get peace in life. The only way you’re going to get joy is if you believe that what God has said is true. Whether you can see it or not, God is at work. He’s doing a work. He’s not passive. He’s present. He’s active. He’s engaged. He’s involved. He’s sovereign over the lives and the affairs of His people and of this world. And the fact that we cannot see what He is doing doesn’t mean that He is not working. That pilot in the airplane doesn’t fly by sight. He trusts the instruments. Even when he can’t see where he’s going, he can’t see what’s happening, he trusts the instruments. Trust the one who controls the instruments. Know that God is at work in our day. God is at work in your church, desperate as the circumstances there may seem. God is at work in your husband’s life when it seems that your husband is paying no regard to God, that he’s not changing at all, that he’s not sensitive. God is at work in your children who are away at college, where you can’t see them and you don’t know what they’re doing and you wonder who they’re hanging out with. “I am doing a work in your day.” So look. Look among the nations and see. Wonder and be astounded. “I am doing a work in your day that you would not believe if told.”