Devotions: Hidden Work

Look among the nations! Observe!
Be astonished! Wonder!
Because I am doing something in your days—
You would not believe if you were told.

Habakkuk 1:5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

God works in mysterious ways. His ways are not our ways. The Hand of God moves in ways we cannot see. There are many phrases we use to describe how God works. The point is that 1: we can’t see Him work. Like the wind, we see the affects, but we can’t see Him. 2: He doesn’t act the way we would. The methods He uses are different from what we would use. The people He uses are not those we expect. 3: He does not work toward the ends we would. We primarily work toward our own happiness, but He does not. Not that He doesn’t want us to be happy, but that is not His highest priority. His goal is first His glory, then our sanctification. 4: His timing is different from ours. He doesn’t mind waiting, and sometimes I think He wants us to wait, for it is in waiting that we learn patience and trust in Him. It refines us in a way nothing else could. The point is that what He does, and when and how He does it, is not what we would expect. The context of this verse is the conquest of Israel by the Chaldeans. They were exiled forever, yet this was something that God was doing. He used the Chaldeans to punish the Israelites for their repeated idolatry, disloyalty and sin. No one expected to see God’s hand in those actions, but they were. Yet He used them for something good. Yes horrible things happened, but He used them for the good of those He loved, just as a loving parent disciplines a child for the child’s own good. The more in tune with God we are, the better we will be able to see what He is doing, what is His hand and what is the result of sin. Align your heart with His and see what He is doing.