August 23, 2026 - Habakkuk 1-3

Inflation is up.  The questions surrounding immigrants remain.  The education system is an absolute mess.  Political fighting is raging.  War is about.  At least, the global warming fear mongering has receded.  What a mess!  Yet, in the midst of all that mess, stands the One who has seen it all and who rules providentially over it all.  Habakkuk faced much worse circumstances as he watched the city of Jerusalem fall at the hands of the Babylonians.  And, yet, he continued to trust the Lord:  “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the producer of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls (pretty nasty economic stuff this!), yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.  God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places” (3:17-19).  Our hope is in the Lord, and that’s a good thing, a very good thing!

O Holy Savior! Friend unseen,

Since on thine arm thou bid’st me lean,

Help me, throughout life’s changing scene,

By faith to cling to thee!

What though the world deceitful prove,

And earthly friends and joys remove?

With patient, uncomplaining love

Still I would cling to thee.

Though faith and hope awhile be tried,

I ask not, need not aught beside:

How safe, how calm, how satisfied,

The souls that cling to thee.   -- Charlotte Elliott (1834)