God”For still the vision awaits its appointed time. It hastens to the end. It will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay.”
– Habakkuk 2:3
Do you ever struggle with patience? Specifically with patiently trusting in God to work things out in time, in his time, not according to our time? This is certainly a struggle in my own heart and life. It’s why I love Habakkuk chapter two, verse three. Because in it God reminds me and you if it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay. There’s so much there. The fact that God says in his word, “If it seems slow,” clearly communicates that there are times when things will seem slow in our lives. Where we will wonder, why is this continuing? Why is this still happening? If it seems slow, God says, “Wait for it.”
Habakkuk 2:3 Reminds Us of God’s Commandment to Wait
God specifically commands us to wait. We see this all over Scripture. One of the books that I have spent the most time in over the last couple of years is Waiting on God by Andrew Murray, I would highly recommend it. But he basically goes through place, after place, after place in God’s word where we are commanded, encouraged, and exhorted to wait on God. One of the most well-known places is Isaiah 40 verses 28 through 31. Won’t quote them all, but you remember where it says, “Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles. Run and not grow weary and walk and not be faint.” The whole picture there, I may have mentioned this before in a previous podcast episode, but one translation for that word wait there in Isaiah 40, one commentator said it basically means to rest trustfully.
I have held onto that definition of waiting in so many ways as we wait for a son we’re in the process of adopting and have been waiting for years to adopt. As I wait in a variety of other ways in my life and family and church, if it seems slow, wait for it. Rest trustfully in God that he is working in the waiting and it will surely come. Habakkuk 2:3 says, “God’s promises and God’s purposes will surely come to pass. They will not delay, not in the end.”
Habakkuk 2:3 Reminds Us that We Should Wait in Faith
God, we pray for patience. I ask for that in my own life and God, I ask for that on behalf of all who are praying this right now. God, we pray you would help us to wait, rest trustfully in you, and not be anxious. God, deliver us from worry. We pray that you would help us not to be anxious about anything, but in all these things with thanksgiving to present our requests to you, to cry out to you with what we long to see you do. And as we trust in you and rest in you, we pray that your peace that passes all understanding would guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
And God that you would do in us, around us, and through us, all that you desire to do in our waiting. God, we don’t want to wait passively, we want to wait actively. We want to know you more in our waiting. God, we want to grow in our relationships with you. We want to see your purposes accomplished in our waiting. So help us not just to rest trustfully, but to obey trustfully. And as we wait, help us to do all that you’re calling us to do in the waiting. God, we praise you for Habakkuk 2:30, for the reminder you give us that when it seems slow, we can wait, rest trustfully in you, and your promises and your purposes will surely come to pass.
Praying for the Southern Pashtun People
God, we pray this especially over our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan today as we pray for the Southern Pashtun people of Afghanistan, Pakistan. God, we pray that you would give them grace in the waiting. Those who are followers of Jesus and experiencing persecution and suffering. God, we pray for your mercy on them in the waiting. Lord, we pray for the spread of the gospel to them. God, we pray for the spread of your good news and your love in Jesus to the Southern Pashtun people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Please God, amidst all the hurt, pain, and suffering, God, we pray that the light and the love of Jesus would shine and spread among the Pashtun people.
We pray all of this as we wait and long for the day when you’ll return Jesus, and you’ll receive praise from all the peoples of the earth and you will make all things right. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
