City Life Starter

The Word

How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

The Lord’s Answer: Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.

Habakkuk 1:1-5

Exegesis

I have a good Muslim friend where we had a conversation about the differences in praying to God. I told him simply that I can be angry at my Father in heaven for things that go wrong and that I am unable to cope with. God gets to hear my good and my bad when I pray. He, on the other hand, couldn’t believe that I would dare to speak my anger to God. Only prayers in reverence and awe of God should be made. It almost seemed that he thought I would be struck down at any minute!

Habakkuk gives us a great guide to praying. He is angry of all the injustice and violence that has gone on around him and that God does nothing. God won’t stop the evil of the world and seems quiet when conflict abounds. Habakkuk wanted comfort and peace, but it was not to be. God answers Habakkuk that He will do something that may seem unbelievable, even if Habakkuk was told about it. God had a plan and was working everything for the greater good.

Did God tell Habakkuk, “You shall not pray like this!”? Or did God actually give Habakkuk an answer? Maybe not the answer he was looking for, but one that let him know that God was there and was in control.

God is our Father and He already knows all our thoughts, anxieties, sins, and dreams. Do you think hiding your anger towards God will stop Him from seeing it? Let God know that you are angry with Him, just like Habakkuk did. Speak what is on your heart and God will honor it.

Keep in mind that there is a difference to pray our anger out in faith versus speaking out in anger to God and doing so faithlessly. Habakkuk trusted that God was the eternal Father in heaven. He only wanted God to act because he knew the character and person of God, His goodness and compassion to everyone. That is the key.

Application

Do you have anger in your heart that something did not go the way you planned? Do you think that God could’ve done more to help in the situation? If so, pray it out. Your Father in heaven wants to hear and listen to your complaints. It only means that you trust Him to solve it. And maybe, just like He told Habakkuk, He is doing something amazing and unbelievable. That if He told you now, you wouldn’t think it possible.

Prayer

Lord, Help me to pray to you in good and bad times. To let you know what is on my heart and by doing so, I can trust you more. Help me believe that you are always in control and always working, even if I may not know it. You are my Lord and Savior. Thank you Father for letting me trust in You. In Jesus’ name, amen.