Read time: ~ 5mins
Graham kicked of our news series called “Back in the Room”. Over the next few weeks before the school summer holidays, we’re going to look at subjects which are relevant to us as we re-gather. We’re going to be considering what sort of church we feel God has called us to be and look at some of the things which we feel should shape us over the months and years ahead.

BUT

Before we look back, we felt it was only right to spend some time looking back. Sometimes, it can be much easier for us to look forward to the things God is calling us to, and so not consider what we’ve been through and the things which have happened to us.

However, it is actually it is good for us to look back and then to bring these things to God. There has been a lot of pain, there has been a lot of loss. All of us have lost things, whether that be loved ones to COVID or during the time when we were unable to be with loved ones during their last days, and we feel time was robbed from us.

It may be that you have lost health and you are still walking through that. May be it was friendships, or you lost a job - we all lost something to one degree or another.

Fortunately the Bible has a lot to say about this and uses the word ‘lament’.

Lament is defined as: feeling, showing or expressing - grief, sorrow, regret or mourning something deeply

For many of us this is what we would do looking back over the last few years in different ways.

Actually the word comes up in the Bible quite a lot, and there is a whole book called ‘Lamentations’, it’s not the happiest of reads but it is a real and honest book.

To look back and lament isn’t a bad thing to do, rather it is a necessary thing!

To look back, be aware of loss, to think, pray and process, bring things to God, is ok! It’s actually a good thing!

BUT

You don’t need to stay there, you can move on from it.

It’s a place we can be for a while, but it shouldn’t be a place where we set up camp / build a home in. It isn’t somewhere we should stay but somewhere we should go through.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

You see mourning, weeping, lamenting are all natural and appropriate human emotions. They are a good thing to do well, but you get to move on. There is also a time to know dancing, laughter and joy! There should be a balance of both in our lives and for good health mental and physical health the balance should be weighted toward the happier emotions more than the sad emotions otherwise it can do long term harm.

It’s clear that some of us will say at this time, I believe this, I agree but I’m still in the midst of a situation and it’s hard for me to move on right now.

What do we do then? Do we just pretend it’s ok? Absolutely not, no the Bible, in the book of Habakkuk has something to say about this too!

Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

Habakkuk describes a season of utter disaster, this isn’t “gosh no grapes, oh well I’ll have oranges”, this is, “there is no food, the crops have failed, there is no livestock either” - its utter devastation.

In our terms, it’s not just that I have to queue to get to the shops and while I’m there, it’s that there is nothing in the store when I get into it…

There are dire consequences to this station, there is no food and no hope of food coming soon. Yet the prophet says, even then, I will rejoice and be joyful in God.

David Prior
“It’s one thing to thank God for all the good things, to rejoice in our blessings. It’s quite another thing to rejoice when all these blessings have been summarily and completely removed. The prophet has learnt to rejoice not in a particular quantity or quality of blessings but in God Himself.

God never changes, if we learn or are liberated to find our joy in the Lord, regardless of any good things we may or may not receive from His hand, then He remains a continued source and cause of rejoicing."

Habakkuk teaches us to trust not in the things he gives but in him!

What is your though? Habakkuk says, "though the figs etc.” so what is your though, most of us have them, things that we need to trust God for. What is yours today?

The book of Habakkuk records for us this conversation that the prophet had with God, he brought his complaint and God was gracious to him and answers him. It also so helpfully records for us Habakkuk's reaction to this.

The problem is that life has a way of throwing situations and seasons at us that we don’t expect. World events at the moment are such that life may get harder for many of us in the future, with the predicted cost of living crisis which some of us may already be feeling is something which is being constantly talked about.

Whatever it is we are facing, whether it is behind or ahead of us, God is calling us to follow him and experience his faithfulness and goodness.

We’d encourage you to read the book of Habakkuk this week and to use this book to help you pray and to encounter God through the pages of this book where the prophet is so real with God.

You can watch and listen to Graham’s talk below.

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More episodes will be added as we progress through the series. You can watch and listen to other series and talks by visiting our media page: jubilee.org.uk/media