Part of a daily devotional series at Words of Hope (https://woh.org/word/devotionals/2013/03/15) looking at how people in the Bible handled tough situations:

Read Habakkuk 3:16-19

Being blind-sided means getting hit by something bad you didn’t see coming. But what if you had advance warning about a tragedy. How would you feel?

The prophet Habakkuk could see a national calamity coming. It was around 600 B.C., and the Judean kingdom was in decline. It had gone from relative prosperity under Josiah to desperation as the Babylonians closed in on the capital. Witnessing its decline, Habakkuk complained to God first about injustices in the land and then the tool (Babylon) God was using to bring judgment. His faith was stretched to the limit. But he finally found peace of mind as he surrendered to God. He just released his country’s future and his own well-being to God’s care as the enemy closed in.

Bertha Munro, former dean of Eastern Nazarene College, once said, “There is no panic in trust.” This wisdom came to her through experiencing the ordeal of a train wreck that left her crippled.

Giving ourselves over completely to God only seems to make sense when we shift our focus away from impending disaster to God’s nature and his actions in the past. The Bible always encourages us to trust God no matter what. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you” (Isa. 26:3 NIV).