Come Lord Jesus
Leif Holmes
I’m sure you have been as shocked, depressed, and horrified as I have in recent weeks and months with the news headlines:
Twin shootings at a Buffalo, NY, supermarket and at a grade school in Uvalde, TX, which took the lives of over 30 people, including 19 children.
The recent release of a nearly 300-page report detailing that the Southern Baptist denomination ignored claims of sexual abuse by approximately 700 ministers and church leaders for the past two decades.
The worst inflation in nearly 40 years.
The daily images and stories of the war in Ukraine.
Truly, as Job states, “We’re all adrift in the same boat: too few days, too many troubles” (Job 14:1). I’m sure you have been heart-stricken as I have with all of the images, stories and gut-wrenching details. And we are left to wonder and ask – “How are we to respond? What can we do? Where is God?”
I think these are legitimate and appropriate questions – especially in such difficult times. Our natural inclination often times is to become fearful and embrace one of two extremes. One, we withdraw and try to isolate and protect ourselves and those around us. Or two, driven by the same motivation, we try and “fight fire with fire,” using worldly means to achieve spiritual ends. But neither of these two extremes gets at the heart of the issue, which for me is found in a little known, and rarely referenced book of the Bible – the book of Habakkuk.
Habakkuk is a short book of the Bible (only 3 chapters), but it is packed. I would encourage you to read it when you have the chance. To briefly summarize, the prophet Habakkuk lives in ancient Israel during evil and horrible times. Habakkuk prays to God, asking Him how long He will tolerate injustice and evil in the land. God responds, but not in the way that Habakkuk (or you and I for that matter) would have thought! God tells Habakkuk that He will use the Babylonians to attack and capture the nation, destroying Jerusalem, God’s temple, and killing and taking captive its inhabitants. Habakkuk is understandably shocked and dismayed. How can God use a people even more evil than Israel to bring punishment on them? It doesn’t seem right or fair! And here is where Habakkuk’s questions and times intersect with our own, for God answers him: “The righteous person will live by faith in God” (Habakkuk 2:4).
This is the one and only antidote to fear – the fear that causes us to want to withdraw and isolate as well as the fear that causes us to want to take matters into our own hands and “work” our own deliverance and salvation. Roughly 700 years later the apostle Paul may have very well had God’s words to Habakkuk in mind when he wrote to the Corinthian church: “We walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).
So how do we respond in such trying times? Here is where I have landed:
Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Hebrews 12:1b-2
Because of our hope in Jesus and His return, we continue to persevere, keeping our eyes on Him, who is seated at God’s right hand with all power and authority. And we look and pray for the day when our faith will give way to sight!
Friends, the last words of the Bible are not fictional!
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.