Advent Day 5 - Still Waiting

Habakkuk

1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,

   and you will not hear?

Or cry to you "Violence!"

   and you will not save?

3 Why do you make me see iniquity,

   and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

   strife and contention arise.

4 So the law is paralyzed,

   and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

   so justice goes forth perverted. 

13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

   and cannot look at wrong,

why do you idly look at traitors

   and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

   the man more righteous than he?

2:1 I will take my stand at my watchpost

   and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what he will say to me,

   and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

 2 And the LORD answered me:

    "Write the vision;

   make it plain on tablets,

   so he may run who reads it.

3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time;

   it hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it;

    it will surely come; it will not delay. "

3:16 I will quietly wait for the day of trouble

   to come upon people who invade us.

 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,

   nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce 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,

18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD;

    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength;

    he makes my feet like the deer’s;

   he makes me tread on my high places. 

Whether we are waiting for God to intervene or to fulfill his promise or to return again to establish his perfect kingdom, we can be confident of his faithfulness.

I Thessalonians 5:24 - "He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. "

I love how Hebrews describes the faithful people of the Old Testament who had confidence in God's faithfulness to fulfill his covenant promise. It says, " They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance." I want to learn to be content in God's timing even when it seems a great deal slower than my own.