Why God Must be Sovereign - Conclusion

The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. Habakkuk 3:19 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/hab.3.19.NIVUK When I was a missionary, I was appointed team leader and found it very difficult. I lacked confidence in myself and found my team difficult to manage. There were also severe pressures from one of the churches we were working with. I quickly became exhausted and was confined to bed for a few days. One day I read these verses and then fell asleep. I dreamt I was trying to climb a mountain, but the ground was made of small gravel-like stones and I just couldn't manage it. I was frustrated, angry and tearful, and I cried out to God. It was then that He brought these words to my mind: The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. Habakkuk 3:19 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/hab.3.19.NIVUK I then realised what the problem was: my job was beyond me. It was too much. But if I trusted in the Sovereign Lord, then He would give me the strength, ability and impregnability to succeed and thrive. I would love to say that the pressure subsided and everything became miraculously easier, but it didn't. However, with the Sovereign Lord on my side, I had the resources to make it through this hard time. Now we are all at the foot of a different mountain, one which is outside of our control and we cannot climb it. It is beyond us. Our only way of getting through this is to trust in the Sovereign Lord, to receive His strength, agility and impregnability. Nothing else will do. Nothing else is good enough. Habakkuk trusted in God so much that he even penned these words: 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 no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the sheepfold and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord , I will be joyful in God my Saviour. Habakkuk 3:16‭-‬18 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/hab.3.16-18.NIVUK He trusted God, even though a severe calamity was coming that would threaten his livelihood, his subsistence and his life. His faith was strong enough in God to face what was coming. Despite facing a situation almost without parallel in the ancient world, and knowing that justice would take time in coming, he was willing to trust the whole situation to God's hands and find his joy in the Sovereign Lord. Can we say this too? This is a true test of faith. Not all of us will pass it. But those of us who believe in the Sovereign Lord will find that He is more than enough to see us through these difficult times.