Trust in God's Sovereignty, Even in Times of Pain

Dr. Chuck Betters
Think of a perfect moment in your past, the moment to which you wish you could
return. Our moment is July 6, 1993, before 10:40 p.m. We were helping our
daughter Heidi and her fiancé write out their wedding invitation. We began with
the words, “Believing in the sovereignty of God…” Those words would soon haunt
our every thought.

Early in that evening our two younger sons, Mark and Dan, had a band practice.
Later Mark and his friend, Kelly, enjoyed watching television together after
Kelly's dad dropped her off at our home. We especially wish we could go back to
the moment when both kids laughed as I teased them and it was obvious they
enjoyed their time together. Life was good and complete. But an hour later
everything turned to ashes when we received the phone call that our son was in
critical condition because of a terrible car accident.

We raced to the hospital to learn that Mark and Kelly had both died in that
crash.

Oh, how I wish we could take everything we have learned since that moment and go
back in time.

Longing for What Was

And in this messy world, there are millions of others who, right now, can
describe the days before Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita and long for what
was.

The Hebrew Christians would understand such longing because they, too,
remembered a time when life was easier. Their pastor wrote some intimate letters
to them, exhorting them to stay the course, to never look back, but to believe
that God is sovereign and they could trust Him.

In the years since Mark's death, Sharon, my wife, and I soaked in this little
book and grabbed hold of the truths that encouraged us to never quit our walk of
faith.

We imagined this little group of believers gathering in a small house church
setting, eagerly hanging on to every word of the letters designed to remind them
of God's faithful love and strength. These Jewish Christians had to give up
everything familiar to follow their Messiah. They did so willingly, but the
pathway was wearisome and their supplies were growing slimmer by the day. Some
had already left their congregation. They had not given up their lives for their
faith, not yet. But the fires of persecution were growing closer and other
believers had been martyred. How could they continue?

We must always study the Bible in context. Passages build on previously stated
truths. In the context of challenging the early church to stay the course of
their new faith, the writer repeatedly refers to the familiar Old Testament. As
an introduction to Hebrews 11, he draws on the book of Habakkuk as a reminder
that faith requires them to believe God is working out His purposes in ways they
cannot see or understand.

Habakkuk's Dismay

The book of Habakkuk is a record of the prophet's confusion and dismay over
God's apparent abandonment of Israel. Israel was in the waiting room and God
seemed absent. I imagine that thousands of believers might be asking the same
questions today in the midst of the horrific devastation of Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita that Habakkuk cried out:

"How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen? Or cry out to
You, 'Violence!' but You do not save? Why do You make me look at injustice? Why
do You tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife,
and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never
prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted."
(Habakkuk 1:2-4)

We have often said that perhaps the reason God has not answered our cries of
“Why is Mark gone? How long before Jesus comes again?” is because His reasons
would never be sufficient to our limited understanding. God implies just that in
His shocking reply to Habakkuk's anguished cries:


“I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you
were told.” (Habakkuk 1:5b)

Habakkuk learns that God will use the bitter enemies of Israel, the Babylonians,
to execute judgment on his people (Habakkuk 1:5-11). Instead of trusting God to
know what He is doing, the prophet continues to question Gold's wisdom and what
he perceives as unloving acts toward his people (Habakkuk 1:12-2:1). God answers
that although it will not happen immediately. Babylon will be punished. In the
meantime, the Israelites are to live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4b) as they wait for
God's protection. Habakkuk responds with worship and commitment:

"I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into
my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet I will wait patiently for the day of
calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and
there are not grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields
produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the
stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior
(Habakkuk 3:16-18).

Habakkuk's waiting room experience opened his eyes to a critical truth. Even if
every circumstance seemed to prove God had abandoned His people, Habakkuk would
not believe it. He determines that he believes God and will wait patiently for
God to work out His purposes.

Choosing to Trust

What can we learn from Habakkuk? To just pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps
and will our selves to believe? No, that won't work. It's critical to understand
that we view all of life through a grid that is our worldview. Habakkuk chose to
believe the God of the Covenant. Through history, God had promised His people
that He would never forsake them. Horrific circumstances forced Habakkuk to
revisit his worldview. Would he trust that God is sovereign, even in this?

Events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita confront us with a similar choice.
Embracing the truth of God's sovereignty dramatically changes our reaction to
our circumstances and gives us eyes that see beyond the physical. It makes us
“certain of what we do not see and sure of what we hope for (Hebrews 11:1-3).”
Ephesians 1:9-10 elaborates on God's purposes:

"And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure,
which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have
reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together
under one head, even Christ."

Even when all around us the world seems to be blowing into a million pieces,
like Habakkuk our lives can be ruled by a quiet confidence in what is not seen:
that God is bringing all things in heaven and on earth together under one head,
even Christ.

When surrounded by uncontrollable circumstances, that one truth births exquisite
faith. We move beyond hope to knowing that God is using those very circumstances
to bring everything back together under Christ. In other words, God will one day
unlock the door to the eternal Garden of Eden and welcome home each of His
children.

I don't say this easily. This is what keeps my eyes focused on the pathway
ahead. My scars are my credentials. Like Habakkuk, I am sure of what I hope for
because “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should
change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not
fulfill? (Numbers 23:19).”

God cannot lie. We are safe in believing His promises.

But there is more. With Habakkuk we can also declare:

“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He
enables me to go on the heights." (Habakkuk 3:19)

Habakkuk knew the God of the Covenant. God chose him to be His child and the
promise He made to Abraham was God's promise to Habakkuk as well:

"God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave
you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any way or degree
leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let you down, relax My hold on you.
Assuredly not!" Hebrews 13:5, Amplifed.

What about you? What's your worldview? Through what grid are you viewing the
messiness in our world?

If you are God's child because you have experienced forgiveness of sins through
the power of His son, Jesus, like Habakkuk, you can trust God, even in this.