GAINING PEACE in TROUBLED TIMES

(Excerpt taking from sermon in series Adventures of Everyman: a study in the Minor Prophets. Message on Book of Habakkuk- listen here)

What do we do in troubled, difficult times of suffering and hardship?

Habakkuk teaches us to PRAY BY FAITH!

In order to PRAY BY FAITH,

WE DISCOVER PEACE IN GOD’S GOODNESS

Habakkuk DISCOVERED peace in God’s GOODNESS through PRAYER.

Not just praying, but HOW he prayed. He spent time ALONE with GOD in PRAYER,

Habakkuk 1:2 (NIV), How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

Habakkuk 2:1 (NLT), I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the LORD says and how he will answer my complaint.

How prays like that? What sounds audacious to you, God hears as authenticity.

Each time Habakkuk prayed like this, those prayers are followed by a response,

Habakkuk 2:2 (NLT), Then the LORD said to me…

The timeless principles revealed in the conversation between Habakkuk and God.

Habakkuk TRUSTS in GOD'S GOODNESS:

Habakkuk 3:1, 2 (NIV), A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet… 2 LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day…

The METHOD of Discovering PEACE IN GOD’S GOODNESS THROUGH PRAYER that Habakkuk modeled is explained by Paul,

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV), Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul’s not instructing that feeling anxious is wrong. BUT that we can overcome those anxieties and deep moments of anguish through prayer.

Not just casual prayer, but a powerful, PEACE-producing prayer. How?

What did Habakkuk do and Paul instruct?

Step 1: PRAY- express request or concern to God. Tell God what you want him to do.

Step 2: THEN BEAR or PETITION. Tell God why you want him to do it. Petitioning is a desperate cry of explaining they why behind the what.

Lay open the fears, weights, burdens of life. God is not afraid of our anguish or despair. Lay it open before Him.

Not only pray to ask God for what you need, but explain to Him your worries and fears that lay under those requests.

When we SHARE our fears and anxieties with God, we will SURRENDER those to Him.

Habakkuk submitted His troubles and sorrow to God.

Step 3: PEACE- Then, in surrender and vulnerable SHARING, God gives us a gift of PEACE, 

Habakkuk 3:18-19 (NIV), …yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 2 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. 

In surrender, we discover the PEACE IN GOD that Paul said is beyond all understanding. 

Incomprehensible to have inner rest under such weights, troubles, or overwhelming circumstances. SUPERNATURAL!

Step 4: GUARDED- This PEACE will “will GUARD your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

“GUARD” means to “referee” In surrender, peace “governs” our heart and minds, like a referee calling fouls and keeping our thoughts, attitudes, and anxious heart from running out-of-bounds. He keeps us from getting derailed. Peace protects us IN GOD through trouble.

SEDUCED by COMPLACENCY

Spiritual awakening begins first with WAKING UP!
(An excerpt from weekend sermon at Lifehouse Church)

My youngest daughter used to wake me up at ungodly hours by joyously screaming in my ear, "Daddy! Daddy!" and slapping my rapidly in the face. Trust me, it woke me up and got my attention!

All of us get comfortable and complacent. Life has a way of lulling us to sleep spiritually and causing us to dull our spiritual senses and drown out our cry for God.

Joel 3:14, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision."

Like these Jewish nation in the time of the prophet Joel, I’ve felt Complacency’s dark figure lurking in the shadows of my heart, whispering with seductive appeal.

I’ve heard Lethargy's comforting song of self-satisfying desires of lust, greed, indulgence, and gluttony.

I’ve felt the brush of Apathy's sleep-inducing touch of self-numbing sins called laziness, prayerlessness, slumber, recreation, and easy-living.

Complacency has told me that my faith is a burden and church is a chore.

Lethargy's whispers have turned violent, as her slumber gripped me with militant tactics- stalking my every spiritual attempt and subverting my spiritual hunger and passion.

Apathy speaks convincingly the dark lies of easy-living, “Why bother? It will cost to much?"

She tells me, "God just wants too much? And it won’t even matter? You’re too weak or too strong. Your too insecure, too ugly, too skinny or too fat. Your too dumb to help or too smart, so why not use your brains elsewhere. You’ll fail so don’t try. You’ll succeed, so take your talents elsewhere where you can be rewarded more noticeably."

She taunts, "People will mock you or laugh at you, are even worse, people won’t care at all."

During times of complacency, inevitably things go wrong.

Like an alarm clock in the night, tragedy, pain, a death, a scare, failure, demotion. They all have a way of challenging us to change How far must God go in getting your attention? If God has to choose between your eternal safety and your earthly comfort, which do you hope he chooses? AWAKENING!

I'm calling us to PERSONAL and CHURCH-WIDE AWAKENING!

Joel 2:1, "Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill."

You and me- we’ve screamed at Lethargy's whispers. We’ve grabbed the wrist of Apathy's seductive, comforting touch, and demanded, “NO MORE!”

See, We’re done with easy, comfortable living! We want more from life, faith!

We DON’T want our life to be about "ME." We’re done with ease, comfort, and over-stuffed appetites.

We're TIRED of sitting on the SIDELINES while others live relentlessly their faith in God.

• Let's choose ANONIMOTY to make GOD'S NAME FAMOUS.  
• Let's choose PERSONAL LOSS so some may GAIN CHRIST. 
• Let's choose to GIVE ALL so that SOME MAY BE SAVED. 
• Let's choose RIDICULE so that SOME MAY know CHRIST’S LOVE. 
• Let's choose TEARS so that others may know JOY. 

 Don’t sit on the sidelines. In the short term we may regret what we have done. But in the long run, we will regret what we didn’t do, the risks we didn’t take.