“YES, BUT” AND “WHAT IF?”
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:18
Habakkuk enumerates a lot of gloomy circumstances, failure of figs and lives and vines and fields and flocks. But although these barren states exist, he will rejoice and be glad, for heaven never knows a drought.
Whether actual or potential, we have to reckon with failure around us, and the devil whispers, “Yes, but…” and “What if…?” “What if you get sick? What if this friend proves false? What if this effort fails?” If you are going to add up all that may happen, you may as well add sleeplessness and maybe nervous breakdown. And the thing you fear is more than likely to arrive. “I feared a fear and it came upon me” (Job 3:25). We might as well face the worst thing that could happen and say, “Let worse come to worst, so what? I still have God.” Drop your tense grip and fall into His arms. Break the tyranny of Yes, But and What If! Faith is worth nothing until it disregards the Failure around us and rejoices in the Faithfulness above us.