Latest / Prayer Before Work / S01E11-Thankful When It Didn't Go Your Way
Transcript
- Sean Graver: Hey, welcome back and good morning. I'm glad you're here today. Now whether today is starting well or whether you're still carrying something from yesterday, let's bring it all to God right now because that's what this time is for. My name is Shawn, I'm glad to be your prayer partner. And today we're going to look at a verse out of the book of Habakkuk, chapter 3, a little bit of verse 17 and 18 where it reads, though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond 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. Well, backup is describing a total crop failure, which in his world meant financial ruin, food scarcity, mean, real loss. And right in the middle of that picture, he plants the word yet. Yet I will rejoice. That word is doing tremendous work. It's not denial, it's defiance. A choice that's made in the face of disappointment. And maybe you didn't get the outcome you worked really hard for. Maybe the deal fell through. Maybe ⁓ the review you got didn't reflect the year that you think you had. Or maybe that project you've been working on for a long time got canceled. The opportunity went to somebody else. Gratitude in ⁓ a moment like that feels almost offensive, right? And I don't want to rush past that. Disappointment is real and it's okay to feel it. It's just not okay to stay there. But here's what Habakkuk shows us. Gratitude and disappointment isn't gratitude for the disappointment. It's gratitude that exists despite it. It's the choice to anchor yourself to something that didn't fail, even when everything else did. mean, God didn't fail. His character didn't change. His presence didn't leave yet. That one word is a whole theology of resistance. So let's pray. God, there are things I was hoping for that have not come through. And if I'm honest, it's hard to feel grateful right now. So I'm asking for you to just help me with that because I can't manufacture it on my own. Help me find my yet. Help me land on the things that are still true. Even when outcomes disappoint. I mean, you're still good. You're still here. You still have a plan I can't fully see from where I'm standing. I don't have to be grateful for what went wrong, but help me be grateful in it, because that's a different thing, and it's only possible because of you. And today, Lord, I choose to trust you. Amen. And now go make today count.