Habakkuk 3:17-18 :”Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines… yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
This may be the most radical posture in all of scripture. Not praise when the harvest comes in. Not worship when the numbers are good. Not joy when the circumstances cooperate.
Praise anyway. Joy regardless. Rejoicing although.
Habakkuk lists the failures comprehensively ….fig tree, vine, olive, field, flock, herd. Nothing is producing. Everything that was supposed to bear fruit has gone silent. By every visible measure, God appears to have stopped showing up.
And the prophet chooses joy.
Not denial. He does not pretend the trees are blooming. He names every empty branch plainly. But then he plants his flag in something the harvest cannot give and the famine cannot take ….the character of God Himself.
This is mature faith. Not the faith that praises God for the blessing but the faith that praises God despite the absence of it. The faith that says: my joy is not housed in my circumstances. It is housed in my God.
When your fig tree is bare …praise anyway. He is still the God of your salvation.
Kingdom Konnekt 