Embrace Joy! with Guest Jean Wilund

It’s so easy, when we are getting hit by one difficult thing after another, to wonder where God is. To cry out to Him, “Why aren’t You stopping it all?” Join us as guest Jean Wilund shares amazing and freeing insights and wisdom, discovered from her study of the book of Habakkuk, for anyone in the midst of these struggles. Get ready to embrace joy!

About Jean Wilund

Jean Wilund is fully convinced that we’ll never truly know and love the God of the Word apart from the Word of God. This conviction fuels her passion for everything she does, including writing, speaking, and serving her family and the body of Christ—particularly her husband, children, and grandtwins. Jean and Larry live in Lexington, SC and are members of Grace Bible Church.

Jean’s Bible study, Embracing Joy: An 8-Week Transformational Bible Study of Habakkuk helps us discover how, during one of the darkest periods in history for God’s people, God moved His prophet Habakkuk from confused to confident and from panic to praise. God will do the same in us if we do what Habakkuk did. Jean’s latest book, Ease into the Bible: How to Wade into the Water of God’s Word with Confidence releases in August to help relive the intimidation factor out of understanding the pieces and parts of the Bible. For more information or to connect with Jean, visit her website, JeanWilund.com and subscribe to her podcast, It’s All About Him!

Thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, we’re able to offer an edited transcript of the podcast!

Karen: Welcome to the deep, everyone. Today’s podcast is going to be a lot of fun. Our guest, Jean Wilund, is going to dig deep into an amazing book of the Bible, Habakkuk, and share her insights. Erin, tell us all about the amazing Jean Wilund!

Erin: Jean and I met several years ago at the Florida Christian Writers Conference, and I got to visit with her again this year. We had a great conversation about the transforming power of God’s Word which is wisdom we need on our writing journey. So welcome, Jean.

Jean Wilund: Thank you so much. I’m so thrilled to be here with y’all. 

What Does the Deep Mean?

Erin: So Jean, what does the deep mean to you? 

Jean Wilund: It means the deep things of God, which basically is the Word of God. I need the deep things of God, whether I’m gonna go deep into my circumstances or deep into understanding. My daughter, my youngest daughter, loves to free dive, not scuba dive, but free dive. But the thought of going deep into the water without scuba equipment is unnerving to me.

But she said it is so peaceful, and I had a word picture of the deeper we go into God’s Word, the more peace it brings, no matter what we’re going through, no matter what’s going on up on the surface. The deep means to be grounded deep in God, grounded in His Word, and to embrace joy regardless of circumstances.

Erin: I love that. So, you did a Bible study on Habakkuk during the Covid pandemic. What got you interested in writing a study about this very short book in very difficult times in our country?

Unexpected Detours

Jean Wilund: Well, I never anticipated doing a Bible study at all. But when Covid hit and everybody was sheltering in place, I was talking with one of my friends, and she said she’d just read the book of Habakkuk and how perfect it was for those times.

So I read Habakkuk with the current situation in mind, and I was blown away. My next-door neighbor and I sat outside, distanced from each other, and talked about this book. 

And then our pastor said, “I want the women’s ministry to do a four-week Bible study.” My neighbor and I discussed what, in those crazy times where we couldn’t get together in person as much, would help us the most? And we agreed we needed to know how to study the Bible for ourselves.

A Perfect Fit!

Jean Wilund: And hey, Habakkuk is only three chapters! So with a four-week Bible study, we’d study three weeks then have a whole extra week to discuss it all. So I did it. I used my transformational Bible study method and taught Habakkuk.

I was talking with a friend about it, and she said, “Okay, that’s what we want at our church. A four-week study on just the book of Habakkuk.”

So that’s how I wrote it as a study. And my friend’s agent was looking for a Bible study and my friend said, “Well, Jean just taught one on Habakkuk and it was fantastic.” So that’s how the study came about. It was not intentional, but it was so encouraging.  

Habakkuk and Writers

Erin: So, Jean, as you think about the book of Habakkuk, what truth do you feel applies to our writing lives?

Jean Wilund: Well, Judah got into the mess that they were in because they said they’d do everything Moses told them, but before long they just did everything that was right in their own eyes.

As Christian writers, we say that everything that we write is going to be for God’s glory, but then we get into it and it’s too easy to veer off track. To do what’s right in our eyes to get the numbers or the platform or whatever. Soon we’ve lost track of the reason that we felt called to write. 

Like Judah, we let our eyes get off of God and focus instead on success and living the way we think we want to live. 

But if we keep our eyes on the glory of God above all things, we’re going to love our writing journey. And we’ll be successful in God’s eyes and that’s all that matters. 

Karen: It’ll also have an incredible impact on everyday life. Don and I have been dealing with one hit after another lately with health issues and unexpected major expenses. It’s tempting, when you’re in those kinds of situations, to focus on those problems and wondering what’s next.

But if we keep our focus on God, on the fact that He loves us and none of this is a surprise to Him, then we don’t have to worry. We don’t have to have sleepless nights. We don’t have to be anxious about anything. 

Jean Wilund: Right. 

Remember God’s Character

Erin: I also love, Jean, how your Habakkuk study encourages us to embrace joy. So how do we do that when hard trials come, maybe God is even is bringing hard trials into our lives… What do we do? 

Jean Wilund: You know, it’s okay to go to God and ask, “How long, O Lord?” We all wrestle with God’s plans for us at times. The difference is when we wrestle with His character. What we see in Habakkuk is he goes to God because he doesn’t understand why God has allowed Judah to be so evil to their own people.

So he is frustrated. It’s clear he’s been praying for a while, but God has been silent. Even so, Habakkuk has continued to pray. Then, when God does speak, the prophet doesn’t get the message he hoped for. God gave him a message that took him from saying, “God, why are you not doing anything?” to “Back up, God, You’ve gone too far now!” 

Habakkuk’s Transformational Actions

Jean Wilund: But I love what Habakkuk did, and it’s something that has been transformational in my life. In Habakkuk 2:1, he says, “I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower and look out to see what He will say to me and what I’ll answer concerning my complaint.”

Habakkuk is pouring out his heart to God and now he wants to hear from Him. He’s telling God, “I want you to correct me.” So that’s one thing he did that we can do, too. 

Another example from Habakkuk’s actions is how, earlier on in Habakkuk 1:12, he immediately started going through God’s character. In fact, that’s the first thing he says, “Are you not from Everlasting? Oh Lord, my God, my holy one.”

Habakkuk roots himself in who God is before he tries to process what God has just told him. He calls God Yahweh, the God who wants to be in relationship. He calls him Elohim, the God, the sovereign God who created all things and is supreme over all things. And The Holy One.

The Holy One

Jean Wilund: Now, to be the holy one, God can’t even have the hint of doing anything wrong. So Habakkuk is saying, “God, this feels so wrong. Ah, but You can do no wrong. And so I’m deep breathing my trembling knees.” He says later on that it’s like death has entered his bones. He’s not being like, “Okay, so Babylon’s gonna come and destroy us, but it’s all good.”

Habakkuk understands that it’s going to be awful, but God is so good and He would not ordain this if it wasn’t for their ultimate good. And Habakkuk 1:12, “We shall not die.” Because if Judah were to die, what would that do to God’s promise, right? How can a savior come through if not, as God promised, through Judah?

A Promise to Sustain Us

Jean Wilund: The promise that we have as Christians is the Holy Spirit, who gives us everything for life. The Spirit embodies us. There’s nothing that we lack to accomplish God purposes for us in our writing. And with the Spirit, we can embrace joy no matter what. 

But we have to go to him continually and say, “Am I understanding Your call?” Because when we write a proposal and get great feedback on it, and then we send it out and everybody says no, that feels contradictory. Yet, like Habakku