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I have mentioned that I keep a prayer journal. Imagine my delight when I found somebody else’s prayer journal in my Bible! He was a prophet named Habakkuk. In his little book, he recorded questions he asked God, and God’s answers —just like I do in my prayer journal!

Habakkuk was distressed by the evils he saw all around him, both in his own society and in the Babylonians, who were a real and terrifying threat, conquering and looting territory after territory. In fact, the list of their exploits reads a lot like the headlines I see every day.

Like I suspect we all have at one time or another, Habakkuk had questions about God’s part in all this. Why, God? he asked. Why do you allow this to continue? Why don’t you do something?

I can imagine the apostles asking these same questions on the eve of a certain Passover. When Jesus was raised up on the cross, their hopes — and perhaps their faith — came crashing down. “He could have saved himself — why didn’t he do something?” they may have whispered to one another, or to themselves.

If God answered them, he would have said the same thing he said to Habakkuk: “Watch, and prepare to be amazed!” And to sum up the rest of his answer, what he said was, ”I am working.”

God gave Habakkuk a vision of his glory and his majesty and power, and Habakkuk wrote that he stood in awe. And his doubt was turned to faith, trusting that God was in control and justice would eventually prevail. “I will wait patiently,” he wrote.

And Habakkuk concluded with one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever read: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,” he wrote, “though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen 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 added. “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”

And that is the message I see echoed in Easter. Wait, and prepare to be amazed! And rejoice no matter the circumstances around me at the moment, because I know — I KNOW — that God is in control, he is working, and justice will prevail in the end. Hallelujah!