Our Burden

The Christian carries a “burden.” We look around us at the unspeakable atrocities and carnage of humanity and cry out in despair to God. When we speak out about the fruits of sin, we find that the world contends with us. The unsaved suffer horribly with the disease of sin and yet refuse the cure.

One fruit of a sinful world is a system of law that eliminates any reference to God, who is the final authority, the one whose laws are perfect and just. When a nation forsakes God’s Moral Law, it produces erroneous judgments. But as desperate as things seem, God can “do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (see Eph. 3:20). He allows us to see iniquity for what it is so that we might be driven to prayer and see Him fulfill His wondrous purposes.

Habakkuk 1:1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?
Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
And You will not save.

3 Why do You show me iniquity,
And cause me to see trouble?
For plundering and violence are before me;
There is strife, and contention arises.

4 Therefore the law is powerless,
And justice never goes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

5 “Look among the nations and watch—
Be utterly astounded!
For I will work a work in your days
Which you would not believe, though it were told you.