IDEA: "The just shall live by faith" implies that we must be willing to wait for God to do what He promised.

TEXT: "I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said, 'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith' " (Habakkuk 2:1-4).

PURPOSE: To help listeners who find waiting difficult.

Do you find waiting difficult? Have you ever had to wait for an airplane to take off?

I. To live by faith means that you're willing to wait for God to do what He promised.

Habakkuk the prophet was told to wait to see God work.

What happened in Habakkuk's life to bring him to a place where God told him to wait?

Sometimes we wait for God's judgment. In the Old Testament God declared that He was going to judge the nations around Israel and Judah. It took Him 200 years to do it.

We also wait for God's reward. We wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ. He has declared that He will come, but He has not told us when. Christians can become impatient for that promise to be fulfilled.

II. Faith shows itself in patience.

Habakkuk cried out to God because of the oppression and evil that was everywhere. God assured him that He would work and he could rest in that.

Habakkuk never saw the destruction of the Babylonians.

If we look at everything in terms of ourselves alone, it may seem that God's promises are not kept.

God works on behalf of His kingdom and His church, and we may not see the promise fulfilled.

III. To live by faith means that we depend on God and not on ourselves to accomplish His work.

There was nothing that Habakkuk could do to change the situation except to cry out to God to work.

The New Testament constantly puts the emphasis on faith in contrast to works. It is not necessarily true that "God helps those who help themselves."