No Matter What

Habakkuk 3:17-18

“Although the FIG tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

Have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a situation like Habakkuk? He is describing a time when nothing is going right, nothing good is happening, in fact just the opposite, everything going on is causing him pain and suffering.

The truth is, most of us, have experienced times in our lives like these. Life comes with problems built in. No one walks through life without trouble, without hardships, or without pain. All of us will have our heart broken at least once or twice. Many will be lied on and despised.

Just look in the Bible and you will see what I'm talking about. David was called a man after ‘God’s own heart.’ He was a great warrior and the King of Israel, and a worshipper. But that did not exempt David from pain. If you study David’s life, you will see a man who endured much pain.

Job was a righteous man, but he endured more grief and pain than would seem humanly possible. Joseph, Daniel, the prophets: I could go on and on, but I believe the point is clear – sometimes life hurts.

Sometimes you're in the pit, sometimes a den of lions, and sometimes you're in the fire. One day you’re on the Mountain calling fire down from heaven, and then the next thing you know, you're in the cave hoping Jezebel doesn't find you. Times of suffering come to us all. Many times, it’s just because we're in the world, but there are also attacks upon us that are demonic in nature, attacks straight out of hell.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” – I Peter 5:8

I have said all of this to lead up to this fact: there will be times in your life when praise just doesn’t make sense. When in our natural minds, we have no reason to praise, it is absolutely, humanly impossible for us to reason that praise is the appropriate response to our dilemma. Praise just isn’t logical.

Habakkuk was doing something that, when viewed from a fleshly perspective, made no sense. He was standing during chaos, loss, emptiness, confusion, and disappointment. But instead of allowing his circumstances to control his relationship with God, he did something that sent shock waves through hell and applause through heaven.

He said, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

Habakkuk had decided, “I'm going to praise my God even when it makes no sense.”

I may be going through a season of pain, but I can still praise Him in my pain. You may be walking through the fire of divorce, or family turmoil, but you can still shout. You may be crying yourself to sleep at night over the prodigals in your life, but amid your cries, you can still sing hallelujah!

I have decided to be illogical, I may look like a fool to those around me, but I'm not going to let my emotions take over. I'm not going to go into deep depression. I'm not going to get angry at God and accuse Him of not loving me, and not caring about me.

I'm going to do what David did: I'm going to encourage myself in the Lord. Then I'm going to get my praise on. I'm going to put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I'm going to open my mouth and praise God. 

No matter what, I'm going to give Him the praise that’s due His name!