From Prayer to Praise

Reading of the Day: Habakkuk 2-3, Zephaniah 1

Habakkuk 3:19: The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

We can find so many reasons to pray. To pour out our hearts non-stop before God. To tell Him the deepest, most desperate desires that burden our souls...and as we discussed in the last post, Habakkuk did just that. He started out conversationally speaking to God (which may not be eloquent, but it's still prayer!). As we said, he had his "why me?" moment. Then, he moves into another part in chapter 3 that actually says, "A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth." (Habakkuk 3:1). While I still count the first conversation or complaining to God as a form of prayer, chapter 3 is definitely the moment where Habakkuk shifts from complaining about the way things are, to praying about how he wants things to be in the future. He prays for God to "revive thy work" and to "remember mercy" in verse 2. He then ends with a "no matter what" moment, saying that even if judgment takes place because of all the brokenness around him, he will rejoice in The Lord (3:18)! Not only did his "why me?" turn into "no matter what," his prayer also turned into praise! Similarly to David, the book of Habakkuk ends positively with verse 3:19 above. He proclaims that The Lord is his strength, and He WILL make his feet like hinds' feet, and He WILL make him to walk upon his high places! He goes from what is, to what WILL be with The Lord! In the last part, he says, "To the chief singer on my stringed instruments." Habakkuk elevated from speaking to song! He may have complained, but he prayed until he got to the point of praise! He did not let his feelings hold him hostage-he escaped through prayer & praise! One helpful way to take this to the next level is to START our prayers with praise! That may be hard, but there is always something to thank God for even before our hearts cry out from our darkest places. That way, our hearts are even more quickly prepared for the joy that's coming! There may not be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but there's always praise on the other side of prayer!