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Dear BAGBR Churches,
3.9.2024
Habakkuk 3: 17-19 “Though the fig tree
should not blossom…Yet I will exult in the
Lord…the Lord God is my strength…”
Habakkuk saw a not so bright future for his
nation: no figs, no fruit, no olives, no
wheat, no sheep, and no cattle! That
kind of description was of a hopeless and
helpless situation—one that would not be
reversed or improved, only endured.
Will we ever face such a time, are we facing
such a time now? Are some in the midst of
what seems hopeless? When all the
circumstances say we will be destroyed, all
the news reports are gloom and doom, all the
pains we are feeling seem not to go away,
will we have faith? It is one thing to boast
in the Lord when we feel like it, when the
world around us is bright and hopeful and
the future looks promising. But, what
about the hard times? … He is still to be
praised in difficult times, indeed; it is
right and wise to do so out of heart of
gratitude. But to be able to do so
when negative scenarios seem to be playing
out—is an act of faith, rooted in our trust
in the Lord. There are places all over the
world where believers are in bleak
situations, and yet so many of them are NOT
despairing and complaining but trusting,
worshipping and serving God.
If our faith is built on comfort,
convenience, and circumstances, then our
faith will struggle and flounder in times of
distress and grief. But if our faith
is convictional, Word-based, and backed by a
surrendered life to His will, then our
response and resolve will be quite
different. Whatever our lot, we will
be able to walk in places we never thought
we could, stand against adversity in ways we
never thought we had the strength to, and we
will learn to say along with the great hymn
writer, “It is Well with my soul.”
3.2.2024
Jonah 2: 1 “THEN Jonah prayed to the Lord
his God from the stomach of the fish.”
So “this” is what was required for Jonah to
pray to the Lord. Throughout the
process of his receiving a Word from the
Lord (1:1), catching a boat out of Joppa (1:
3), sleeping on the ship (1: 5), being
tossed into the sea (1: 15); at no point did
Jonah pray! Praying the scripture is
not repeating a selected passage (Mt. 6:
9-13) and using phrases and meaningless
words (Mt. 6: 5-8), but prayer begins with
the yielding of our will, the surrender of
our heart to God. Jonah may have been
heard to be saying things that sounded like
a prayer, but it wasn’t…because his heart
was stubborn against the will of God and
determined to do his own will. Only
when Jonah found himself in a really dark,
smelly, hopeless place did Jonah start
praying. How many of us say and pray
the right “sounding” words in church but we
are just as wayward and stubborn as Jonah?
God loved Jonah so much that he would not
let him go away or get away from doing His
will.
For whom the Lord loves He chastens— and
that He did with Jonah. Jonah’s
chastening brought him to a place that was
dark, lonely, smelly, and miserable, to a
place where the only thing Jonah could do
was pray. If we find ourselves in such
a place in life, it would be a wise and
discerning question to ask whether or not we
are in such a place—not because we prayed
for it—but rather because we would NOT pray!
May this not be what is required in our walk
to get us to the point where we are willing
to pray again, that is, willing to meet God
on His terms and not ours. God loved
the people of Nineveh so much that He would
NOT leave them in their sin and rebellion
until He first brought them the prophet of
God who would speak the Word of the Lord. We
should pray every day, without ceasing. And
that prayer should include a surrendered and
yielded will to His will—with an open heart
to go, serve, and do His will. If we
pray in such a manner, it does not mean
there won’t be some difficult and hard
places. But in those places we will not be
alone and we will not be without His peace.
We will have the assurance that we are Where
we ought to be, doing as He has directed.
In Christ,
Tommy Middleton
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