Habbakuk week 1

It's ok for us to be raw and real with God.
4 Ways God answers prayer:
1. I can't hear you - when we are not in right standing with God. Ps 66:18
2. Yes. Isa 65:24
3. No. 2 Cor 12:8-9
4. Wait. Isa 55:8-9

Habakkuk 1:1-4 (NIV)
1The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. 2How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

Psalm 66:18 (NIV)
18If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;

Isaiah 65:24 (NIV)
24Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 (NIV)
8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Isaiah 55:8–9 (NIV)
8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
9“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Habakkuk 1:5-11 (NIV)
5“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. 6I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. 7They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. 8Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry gallops headlong; their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping to devour; 9they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand. 10They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them. 11Then they sweep past like the wind and go on— guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

God was going to use tragedy and calamity to bring people back to Himself. God can still use hard times to bring people back to Him, and He is always at work.

1. BE honest

Habakkuk 1:2 (NIV)
2How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?

Being a Christian doesn't exempt us from difficulty and troubling circumstances.

2. BE patient

Isaiah 5:19 (NIV)
19to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel— let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”

3. DON’T give up

Psalm 73:13–14 (NIV)
13Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.
14All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.

Psalm 73:16 (NIV)
16When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply

Psalm 73:17 (NIV)
17till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

Ask God for faith

4. Trust IN GOD

Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)
5“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 2:20 (NIV)
20The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.

God is good and in control. Period. No matter what. God is at work in our struggles. He's got this.
God welcomes our questions and doubts, talk to Him, lean into Him.