Shan Dai Advocacy

Habakkuk

March 23, 2007 on 1:03 pm | In His First Bible, Old Testament, PrayerGrams |

God will not tolerate idolatry. There is no sense in pursuing guidance from a piece of wood that man has carved and covered in gold, in fact, God says woe to those who follow such foolishness. The people of Judah were influenced by the surrounding nations and they began to value idols over the living God. Can you imagine pursuing direction from mute gods covered in gold and silver? Sadly for many Shan Dai, they too take the route of Judah when they bow down desiring guidance from a golden Buddha. As we pray for the Dai who lift up idols, let us keep in mind that an idol is anything we value more than God. What are we pursuing, bowing down to or lifting up? Anything we trust in outside of God is our idol. But just as God offered hope to Habakkuk to pass on to those in his realm of influence, and for all who read his conversation with God, there is hope for us and the Dai people. Even though things around him looked bleak at best, Habakkuk learned to trust that God was worth the pursuit. Habakkuk recounted several times “even though…” concerning his difficult circumstances, and then proclaimed, “yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign LORD is my strength!” (Habakkuk 3:17-19a). This is not an easy proposition, but may our prayer today be “even though ________________________________, yet I will live in joy for God is my Savior and He alone is my strength.”