Description
Lifted Above Our Circumstances
A reflection on Habakkuk 3:19 as a poetic song of trust in God: the Lord is our strength… (visit YouTube for more)
Transcript
Us British people, we often say we are okay under the circumstances. Do you feel like you are under your circumstances, my friend? Well, I have good news for you from Habakkuk chapter three verse 19. God, the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer’s. He makes me tread on high places. To the choir master: with stringed instruments.
So there’s a direction right at the end of this chapter saying that this is a song. This is poetry. Habakkuk is speaking poetry about how God treats him and how he treats us.
God is our strength. We often reflect on this, that when we come to the end of ourselves, we lean on him and we find that he’s strong enough. If only we thought to lean on him before our strength ran out!
And God causes us to be steady. He lifts us to those high places. So even if we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, God’s light is shining on us. He causes us to look to eternity and to see beyond the things that afflict and oppress us.
And that sure footedness of the deer’s metaphorically can be ours. God can take us step by step through our lives, if we follow him. If we keep in step with the Holy Spirit, we will not missstep.
Yes, we are prone to mistakes and he lifts us up and dusts us off and says, let’s keep going, my son, my daughter. But he also gives us that spiritual sure footedness that comes from gifts like discernment that he bestows on us if we ask for them.
He gives us hope and certainty and faith. Faith itself is a gift from God. Looking to our Saviour and looking to eternity, we know where we’re going and we can point ourselves in that direction.
This beautiful poem applies to you and it applies to me.
Thank you God, for giving us that sure-footed direction and for lifting us above our circumstances. Amen.
