“You Must Stumble before You Can Dance”

 

BIBLE READING: Habakkuk 1-3


                “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected”.                                                                                                                                                      — Habakkuk 2:1 NKJV

            God says: Never ignore your struggle with how I do things. Ask every question that rises in your heart as you live in this world. But prepare yourself to struggle even more with My response.

You must stumble in confusion before you dance with joy.

Know this: those who live by faith will struggle in ways that those who live to make their lives work will never know. It is that struggle, to believe despite desperate pain and confusion that a good plan is unfolding, that will open your eyes to see Me more clearly. Is that what you want? Will you pay the price?

            The price is this: you will tremble in agony as you live in a sinful, self-prioritizing world. You will learn to wait in emptiness and frustrated desire for My plan of love to reveal itself. With confidence in Me and hope in My plan, you will not only feel the pain of living in the valley but also see My glory from the mountaintop of faith.

Only those who struggle in confusion and wait in hope will be strengthened to struggle well and to wait with confidence. Struggle well! Wait in hope!

Take a Moment to Reflect

  • Identify what your normal way of thinking is in response to unexplainable circumstances and hardships. Do you plow ahead and try not to think much? Do you try to fix it? Do you try to find a Scripture passage to make sense of it? What would it look like for you to embrace before God the struggle and all that you think and feel?
  • Based on the reading, what do you think it means to struggle well? What might have to change in your thinking?
  • Pain in life often tempts us to believe we have done something wrong that, if corrected, would eliminate the pain. How might you think differently about suffering, given today’s thoughts?

Take a Moment to Pray

Father God, I am not sure how to answer this question: “Am I willing to pay the price?” I want my answer to be yes, but I am scared. Strengthen my heart to believe something good is happening when pain and confusion overwhelm me. I want to learn to struggle well. In Jesus’ name, amen.

                        (Except from Larry Crabb’s book “God Love Letter To You?”)

           

 

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