The Problem with Good Advice is Short Memory

Introduction

There are things we learned growing up: make your bed, pick up your shoes, mind your manners, say yes ma’am and no ma’am. But sometimes we aren’t gone from home 15 minutes before forgetting every word of it. It’s the same way with sermons. We may hear someone preach about gossip or loving our neighbor. It sounds good, we say amen, and 30 minutes after the benediction we’re back to our old fleshly ways. The doctor tells us we need to lower our cholesterol and eat more fiber, so we stop by Dairy Queen on the way home and grab a sundae.

All our lives we get advice—a lot of it good advice. We usually listen, but when it’s time to put it into practice, we can’t remember it. We’re plagued with poor memories. We forget what we should remember and remember what we should forget. One of the most practical pieces of advice ever spoken was given to Habakkuk in chapter 2. Those who follow this advice face the difficulties of life and are better for it. But those who refuse to follow it face difficulties and become bitter.

There are times we all feel spiritually battered, beaten, and bruised, looking up from the bottom. Maybe someone gave you “the right foot of fellowship” (a swift kick in the rear) or a knife in the back, and the bottom fell out of laughed. I saw a plaque that read, “I’ve been poked, pulled, punched, beaten up, kicked, liked to, cheated, ripped off and robbed. The only reason I hang around this place is to see what happens next.”

At times it seems we’re having a spiritual mid-life crisis or maybe we just live a mid-crisis life. Distress, depression, disgust, distance, dismay, and defeat may abound. We may begin to question: Will I ever walk in victory? Will I ever see a light at the end of the tunnel? Is this all there is to life? Why do I always feel run over? The Bible says Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave, so why does it seem He can’t take care of my problems.

What do you do when spiritually the well is dry…your soul is starving…the flame’s about to go out…all hope seems gone?

“I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, and how I may reply when I am reproved. Then the Lord answered me and said, 'Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets. That the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it will hasten toward the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay. Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” – Habakkuk 2:1-5

Observations:

1) Being busy doesn’t mean you are productive. “Waiting” is a big word in God’s vocabulary.

2) Doing God’s work doesn’t mean you are enjoying God’s presence.

3) You can’t give what you don’t have.

4) If you don’t have a word from God, you don’t have anything to say.

5) Applause and approval of the crowd should never be confused with the blessings of God.

Habakkuk needed a cure for his crisis. He was an innocent bystander. He had been obedient to God, but he was caught in the middle between guilty and God’s judgment by the Chaldeans.

J. Vernon McGee said, “If you have a question, don’t smother it in pious phraseology. Go to Him and tell Him that you don’t understand.

Habakkuk came to realize that sometimes the innocent suffer with the guilty. An innocent baby suffers brain damage because his mother abused drugs or alcohol during pregnancy. A “good” person gets hit by a stray bullet.

The moral live in an immoral world. What word of advice does God give us at times when we’re caught in the middle? “The righteous shall live by faith.” Habakkuk stops shouting at God and starts listening to God.

I. Attitudes needed to understand the ways of God:

A. Watch and wait (v. 1)

B. Write and wait (v. 2)

C. Believe and wait (v. 3)

D. Wait by faith (v. 4)

Habakkuk went to the guard post to wait for a word from God. Pride would have argued with God or wanted to negotiate. Haste would have said there was no time to wait in light of the approaching Chaldeans.

The just shall live by faith—it’s the answer to every question we pose. The attitude of faith requires a frame of mind that depends on someone else. You’ll become like the God in whom you trust. One old translation of this text says, “The just shall survive by faith.”

There are two ways to live life:

1) Self-assured: flesh, reason

2) Assured of God’s promises: faith

II. Three results of walking by faith:

A. You Commit Your Situation to the Lord

Habakkuk went to the guard post to get a different perspective. Far above the crowd, he got a new vantage point to see what was going on. He didn’t go to discuss the Chaldean problem with a rabbi; he took it to God. D. Martyn Lloyd- Jones said, “Never allow yourself to be submerged by a difficulty or shut in by a problem.” Be shut up to faith. (see Philippians 4:6, 7)

B. Expect God to Hear and Answer.

Watch for the slightest indication of movement on God’s part. There’s no need to pray if we don’t expect an answer. Take God at His word, regardless of what appears contrary.

C. Watch and Wait for the Answer, Then Mark it Down. Faith is always rewarded.

Don’t forget the advice God gives you because you’ll need it again down the road. God is always true to His word, and His promises never fail. Sometimes in crisis we cry out to God, but when the crisis passes, we forget all about it.

There are two possible alternatives for living:

1) Reason and pride

2) Faith and humility

Conclusion

You must choose which way you will walk. You will either take God’s Word and live by it or you won’t. You will either base your life on God’s promises or you won’t. If the Word of God is not trustworthy for part of my life, then it isn’t trustworthy for any of my life. You can stake your life on what you read in the news and see on television, or you can get alone with God to watch, wait, listen, and live by faith.

“If any promise of God should fail, the heavens would clothe themselves with sackcloth, the sun, moon, and stars would reel from their courses, the universe would rock and a hollow wind would moan through the ruin creation that God can lie.” – F. B. Meyer

Have you heard any good advice lately? Have you done anything with it? Do you plan to? If the request is wrong, God will say, “No.”

If the timing is wrong, God will say, “Slow.”

If you are wrong, God will say, “Grow.”