Tim’s Daily Bread Devotional 10.13.21

By October 13, 2021Daily Bread

Good morning! I hope this day finds you and your family well, and I want you to know that you are in my prayers daily during this difficult time.

I invite you to take a few moments with me to reflect on today’s Upper Room Devotional below — as well as on the theology woven into “It is well with my soul.”

Today’s Scripture:

Habakkuk 1:1-5 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

The Prophet’s Complaint

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
So the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.

Look at the nations, and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.

Tim’s Devotional Reflection for Today

There is a long tradition of people crying out to God about the injustices of the world, the evils of the world, the pain and the suffering of the world.  There is strife.  There is conflict.  Verses 1-4 of the first chapter of Habakkuk is in that tradition.

What about you?  Have you every followed in that tradition?  I have!  It is often the prayer of the Psalmist.  Moses complained to God.  Job railed at God.  Even Jesus prayed—quoting Psalm 22—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It is made clearer in some translations by added headings, but verse 5 is a change of voice.  It is God responding to Habakkuk:  “Look at the nations, and see!  Be astonished!  Be astounded!  For a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told.”

What do you think God is up to in our days?  What is the work that is being done that is the Lord’s work?  Look at see!  Be astonished!  There are people who are living out what it means to love and serve and give. Be astounded!  God is at work in and through people in our time to make the world a better place and improve the lives of God’s children everywhere.  Indeed, I believe, “a work is being done in [our] days.”

Thank you for sharing this early moment of your day with me, with God, and with the words and music that I hope you will carry with you throughout the coming day and night.

I am so grateful for you, for our church, and for the Love that will see us all through this very difficult time. Please stay safe and well and we’ll be together again in spirit tomorrow morning!

Grace and Peace,


Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor

Here’s more about this passage of scripture via Upper Room devotionals:

WAITING

I will wait on God’s promises.

read more