Praising God during the bad times is hard. Sometimes you may feel like your time of difficulty won’t ever end, or you may not understand why everyone else’s life seems to be coming together and yours is still a train wreck. I am here to tell you that I understand what you are going through, and I have felt the same exact way as you. However, a couple weeks ago (while I was taking a shower...come on we all know that is the best place to do your thinking at), I realized that I was truly happy again. I stood in the shower and I praised God. I praised Him because I was finally finished with my difficult time, and I was starting a season of happiness. During this moment, it hit me - I should’ve been praising Him more during the bad times. I should have TRUSTED Him more, because little did I know all those bad things I had been going through was leading me to a future greater and far better than I could ever imagine.
I knew better. I knew I should’ve trusted Him more, but it’s hard. The first step I have taken in learning how to praise Him during the good AND bad times is by being more like Habakkuk. At this point you may be asking, who the heck is Habakkuk? I know… I felt the same way when I first heard about him. I was even skeptical if this guy was even in the Bible. I was proven wrong though, because he was clearly in the Bible. I mean, he has this whole part in the Bible named after him.
As I was reading The Book of Habakkuk, I realized that Habakkuk understands what we go through during life. His whole book was about him asking God why He was letting him endure all of these trials and difficulties. He basically complained the whole time during his prayers to God. God didn’t get annoyed; however, God basically told Habakkuk that if he persevered, he would experience riches greater than he has ever imagined. Habakkuk just had to trust in Him.
At the end of The Book of Habakkuk we can see that Habakkuk finally decides to praise God during the difficult time and trust in him: “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 pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Hab 3:17-18, NIV)
I promise you God is good, all of the time. And all of the time God is good. You just have to preserve like Habakkuk did, because God’s plan is perfect and those trials you are going through is preparing your life to be even better than you could even imagine.
