Clinging to God in Faith

The following excerpts show that it’s all about faith in this week’s readings.

 

Habakkuk 1:1-4

1 …² Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? ³ Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. ⁴ Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.

2 I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

² Yahweh answered me, “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay…The righteous will live by his faith.”

Luke 17:5-6

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

⁶ The Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, ‘Be uprooted, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

2 Timothy 1:5

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

 

Habakkuk 3, is not among the lessons for this weekend, but forms a bookend with the readings from chp.s. 1-2.

Habakkuk 3:17-18

For though the fig tree doesn’t flourish,
nor fruit be in the vines;
the labor of the olive fails,
the fields yield no food;
the flocks are cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls:
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in Yahweh.
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
Prayer of the Day:

O God, our refuge and strength, the author of all godliness, by Your grace hear the prayers of Your Church.  Grant that those things which we aske in faith we may receive through your bountiful mercy; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit.