[Darris McNeely] I just taped a program for Beyond Today called “The Great Battle for God”. We did this as part of a series we’re working on in anticipation of a fall public appearance campaign that we’re going to be doing in Texas later this year. As I began to write the script and began to develop a concept that we wanted to get across, that the world today is engaged in a battle for God, a great battle for God, I went to the prophet Habakkuk to look at that particular setting, for that prophecy. The book of Habakkuk. And I was reading in chapter 1 and verse 5, and it struck me that the period of time that Habakkuk wrote his prophecy has parallels for us today in what we are dealing with.

Habakkuk took his nation, Judah – he lifted it up to God with all of its problems and all of its social ills, and he said, “My country is sick. God, what can You do for it?” And God said to Habakkuk, “I’m doing something and you just need to stand aside and watch what I am doing. There’s going to be a period that I will deal with Judah, and it’s not going to be the way you anticipate or think that it’s going to go.” And in verse 5 of Habakkuk chapter 1, God said, “Look among the nations and watch – be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you” (Habakkuk 1:1-5). In Habakkuk’s day, God was moving through the nations – not just against the nation Judah, but also with the other nations of Egypt and Assyria and Babylon, that were in a churn and a turmoil, and things were happening.

I look around our world today, and things are happening as well. The Middle East is in crisis – it’s aflame. Europe is in a time of turmoil. Russia is pressuring Europe by some of its actions in the Ukraine within the last several months.

I look at American culture. We are going through sea changes of what is taking place, and it’s creating uncertainty and concern and people recognize things are different. Things are happening. What’s going on? And there’s fear, there’s uncertainty – but there shouldn’t be despair. And so I think the message of Habakkuk has a lesson for us. We don’t know a whole lot about who Habakkuk was, but we know that his name tells us this – the name “Habakkuk” means “to embrace”.  And what Habakkuk did was to embrace first his people and say, “God, help us. Help my people, Judah.” And God said, “It’s at a point where they’re going to have to learn a lesson, and I’m going to bring this nation called Babylon against them, and I’m going to teach that lesson through them.” And Habakkuk couldn’t believe it, but he accepted God’s will and he stood aside and he said, in essence, “All right, Your will be done.” And he embraced God. And that’s how he rode it through, he rode through that storm.

As we look at what’s taking place in our world today, I think a Christian has to first determine that we are going to embrace God no matter what happens. And when we do, then we can deal with what is taking place in the world and understand the shifts of social culture that are taking place and put it in a perspective and recognize that God and His plan and His purpose are being brought to pass – that God is in charge of history. This is what Habakkuk had to come to understand, and I think there’s a great lesson there as we deal with the issue in front of us, this great battle for God taking place in our world today.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.