Praying for God to Fill up My EmptinessChikamu

Fear

In the little Old Testament book of Habakkuk, we find the writings of a prophet who was gripped by frustration, confusion, and fear as he faced the future. And it wasn’t because he hadn’t heard from God. What stoked his fears was what God had revealed to him. 

God had revealed to Habakkuk that in response to the sin among his people, he was raising the Babylonians, a nation notorious for its wickedness and cruelty, and they were going to march through Judah and destroy it. Habakkuk knew that if the Babylonians were coming, the devastation was about to sweep not only through the nation that he loved but also through his own life, through his property, livelihood, and family. In the coming devastation, Habakkuk was likely to lose everything and be left with nothing. 

Habakkuk was trembling with fear, but he was determined to trust. In the song he sings in Habakkuk 3, he seems to be saying, I’m scared. I know there are heartache and loss ahead of me and the people I love, and there is a part of me that is terrified as I think about the Babylonian invaders showing up on our doorstep. But I refuse to let this fear grip and control me. I refuse to allow this difficulty in my short-term future to rob me of my long-term hope. Because I believe that God will prove true on his promises to save his people, I can wait quietly. God has given me a glimpse of the day when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And what I know to be true about my future glory is changing how I feel about my present pain and how I intend to face it.

Since Habakkuk lived in an agrarian society when he sang about the fig tree not blossoming, the olive crop failing, and the cattle dying off, it represented a total loss of livelihood and way of life, which is what many people today, amid the coronavirus, are facing. If we were to take Habakkuk’s words of determination to trust God in Habakkuk 3 and adjust them to realities in our day, perhaps they would read like this:

Even if my income dries up

And my savings are gone,

Even if I face a devastating diagnosis

And lose my dignity in the process,

Even if my integrity is questioned

And my reputation ruined;

Yet I will choose daily to be happy in Christ.

I will smile at the future because I am protected and provided for in Christ.

None of these things is the source of my strength or security; God alone is my strength.

Christ in me enables me to navigate dangerous and difficult circumstances. 

Because of Christ, I know that my future is full of glory.

Our confidence is not that God is going to fix everything for us in the here and now. Our confidence is that though there may be significant losses in this life, huge places of emptiness, there is divine fullness in our future. One day his glory is going to fill this earth like the waters cover the sea. Faith will become sight. 

Question to consider: If you were to sing a song amid the fears you have about the future, what would it sound like? What would you want to express to God?

Prayer: Lord, I ask you to work in the emptiness of my life, just as you did in Habakkuk’s life. Meet me in my fears about the future. Give me a song to sing as I wait for whatever comes. Fill me with the faith to trust you with the possibility of losing everything in this life, even losing my life. Fill me with joy in your salvation beyond this world.