{"id":241,"date":"2012-05-02T02:35:42","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T02:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clay2x.wordpress.com\/?p=241"},"modified":"2012-05-02T02:35:42","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T02:35:42","slug":"song-of-hope-from-a-distant-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/song-of-hope-from-a-distant-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Song of Hope from a distant past"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds<\/strong>, Lord. Repeat them<\/strong> in our day, in our time<\/strong> make them known; in wrath remember mercy<\/strong>. ~ Hab 3:2<\/strong><\/em>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess things don’t look good horizontally.
\nOur housing ballot result was far below expectation. There’re about 360 units and our number is 395.
\nAt workplace, the only change is negative ones…people are leaving, workload increasing, more demands to put in more efforts..
\nAt ministry, when people are leaving and new ones refused to join, now only two of us running the show every week..
\nLast week, i told my wife i feel at lost. Everything seems not good.
\nBut her word was the turning point.
\nShe asked me a very simple question, “how’s relationship with God?”. Isn’t it getting better?” That’s all that matters actually.”<\/p>\n

Those are very hard things to swallow for me. I just couldn’t lift my eyes up to see it. If relationship with God the only thing that matters, and the rest collapse, what’s so great about it?<\/p>\n


\nTill this morning, as usual, i opened up a Bible to read. And as usual, a new light dawn upon me on Habakuk. Though i’ve read it many times. And each time new things come out. Again this morning it shows me something new, again.<\/p>\n

Somehow, i could see the whole chapter 3 as a Song. I never could figure it out before how it become a song. It’s so long. But this morning, somehow i can feel the movement of the song, how it was written, and the meaning of the song. I could understand the last parts of his rejoicing, logically too.<\/p>\n

Here Habakuk isn’t a loser or person who receives everything bad and be with it. But far from it, he’s someone who sees God, and hence despite the current situation, he is talking about future hope in God. His total focus is God. The God who performs awesome deeds in the past, and the God who promises future to His people. Also the God who allows calamities to happen in the present.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, he burst into song of Hope. He’s telling God that he has confident to go through present sufferings \/ misfortunes, because He knows God’s actions in past, and He’s sure God’s promises for the future.<\/p>\n

So, the song closes my question and search this week. I went back to sleep in peace this morning. Thank God for Habakuk and his song of hope. Hope isn’t the same as wishful thinking or positive thinking. If you understand his song, hope is assurance \/ certainty based on God’s promise & revelation. It’s sure and certain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. ~ Hab 3:2 I guess things don’t look good horizontally. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88,4,21,104,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assured","category-daily-life","category-habakuk","category-hope","category-restful"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1209,"url":"https:\/\/potterdreams.com\/clay\/one-week-after-holiday\/","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":0},"title":"One week after holiday","author":"clay","date":"October 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"TG so much for the holiday i had. 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