It is easy to rejoice when God answers our prayers,

the way we hope He would, or even better than we'd hoped, but what do we do when circumstances remain unchanged or things get worse?

Today on Truth For Life, Alistair Begg looks for answers in a book of the Bible that is often overlooked.

I invite you to turn to the Old Testament with me to the prophecy of Habakkuk and which you will find in between Nahum and Zephaniah.

So let me read chapter 3 for us, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, on Shigeonoth, Lord I have heard of Your fame, I stand in all of Your deeds, O Lord.

Renew them in our day, in our time, make them known, in wrath, remember mercy.

God came from Teaman, the Holy One from Mount Paran, His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth.

His splendor was like the sunrise, raised, flashed from His hand, where His power was hidden, plague went before Him, pestilence followed His steps.

He stood and shook the earth, He looked and made the nation's tremble, the ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed, His ways are eternal.

I saw the tents of Cushion in distress, the dwellings of Midian in Anguish, where you angry with the rivers, O Lord, was Your wrath against the streams, did You rage against the sea when You rode with Your horses and Your victorious chariots?

You uncovered Your bowl, You called for many arrows, You split the earth with rivers, the mountains saw You and writhed, torrents of water swept by, the deep roared and lifted its waves on high,

sun and mood stood still in the heavens, at the glint of Your flying arrows, at the lightning of Your flashing spear.

In wrath You strode through the earth, and in anger You threshed the nations. You came out to deliver Your people to save Your anointed one.

You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, You stripped Him from head to foot, with His own spear You pierced His head, when His warrior stormed out to scatter us, gloting as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.

You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters. 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 pan and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The sovereign Lord is my strength, He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights, for the director of music on my stringed instruments.

Thanks be to God, for His Word.

Father, now we pray that in turning to Your Word, the Spirit of God will teach us, and that we will be changed as a result of our encounter with You, the Living God, through Your written Word, the Bible, as we pray in the name of Your Son, Jesus, Amen.

Life by its very nature is untidy. It constantly defies our attempts to control it, we are challenged by it on multiple levels, on virtually a daily basis.

Physically, we are clearly not in charge, and silly if we think it to be other than that.

Emotionally, we are often very quickly overwhelmed, and find that things that we thought we had control over have unraveled before us, and we find ourselves in difficulty and often in sadness and chaos.

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