Learning What is Most Important

Do you find the most spiritual growth often comes from your most painful seasons? Have you ever felt you have learned more from your mistakes than what you have gotten right? Let me be the first to raise my hand. 

I relate so much to Habakkuk. There is so much we can learn from this book tucked within the pages of the Old Testament, but some of the lessons God doesn’t sugarcoat are painfully hard. 

We learn that God doesn’t always remove the difficult things that come into our lives. Some will come simply because we live in a fallen world. Others will find us because we choose to follow our path, failing to surrender our will to God.

Israel had gone astray from God and followed their own path. This is what ultimately led them into captivity and the hardships that Habakkuk refers to in Habakkuh 3:17.  

“Though the fig tree does not bud

And there is no fruit in the vines, 

Though the olive crop fails

And the fields produce no food, 

Though the flocks disappear from the pen

And there are no herds in the stalls, 

Yet I will celebrate in the Lord;

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”

At a time when all looked lost, what hope could be found? How could Habakkuk celebrate at a time like this? Because of all the things Habakkuk didn’t have, he couldn’t take the one thing he did have. 

There will be lessons to be learned when our greatest disasters bring us to our knees. Thank God for His grace and mercy because we are never without hope, even at our lowest. 

Habakkuk could celebrate because he had learned his strength wasn’t in the fig tree.

His provision wasn’t found in the fields.

His comfort wasn’t in the olive trees and the oil they produced.

His joy wasn’t in the flocks and herds.

His peace wasn’t found in what he owned and possessed but in the One who owned and possessed it all. 

Habakkuk learned the most important lesson of all.  He learned that everything he needed was found in His God.

I love the verse found in Habakkuk 3:19. It reads, “The Lord my Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights.”

Yes, He will “enable” us to experience Him and the joy He shares with us despite our mistakes and shortcomings. 

If we follow on to know the Lord, He will lead us to fully see the breadth, length, height, and depth of His great love. (Ephesians 3:18-21) 

There is much to learn, even when we get it wrong.

Don’t give up. Let God redeem even your messiest seasons and use them to teach you and others.

Nothing is ever wasted because of His great mercy and grace.