READING:
One-year plan: Habakkuk 1-3, Revelation 15-16
Two-year plan: 2 Chronicles 9:13-11:23, Acts 4:23-37
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It’s Christmas day—a day to celebrate God’s coming to us in the flesh to live our lives, die our death, and purchase our salvation. It’s a day to rejoice that God is with us. Today’s Old Testament reading reminds us to trust God and rejoice in Him not only on days like today, but also in days when things aren’t going well. At the end of the book are these words that express the prophet Habakkuk’s confidence in God:
Hab 3:17-18 Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
The Babylonians would be increasing their empire as they invaded Judah, but Habakkuk knew that God would then in turn bring judgment on the invading armies. The prophet’s role in the meantime was to “quietly wait for the day of distress to come against the people invading us” (Hab 3:16). God would indeed bring His judgment—but He would do it in His timing.
Habakkuk had learned that he could trust God even if everything were messed up — even if the trees produced no buds and the fields produced no food. God is worthy of our worship whether we find ourselves at the top of the mountain or at the bottom of the valley. Rejoicing in the toughest times might, in fact, be one of the strongest witnesses we have.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you really trusting God with all your being on this Christmas day?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, help me to trust You even if life is not going well today.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Zephaniah 1-3, Haggai 1-2, Revelation 17:1-18:20
Two-year plan: 2 Chronicles 12:1-14:1, Acts 5:1-11
*portions first published in 2015