We’ve started the process of praying through the book of Habakkuk. If you missed the previous prayer, then click Here.  I’ve received a wide range of feedback from the previous prayer. The feedback has ranged from “That’s a real downer.” to “Thank you, this is exactly how I feel.” What we must understand is Habakkuk is a book that embraces the human experience. He doesn’t hide his questions or complaints. He brings them to God in prayer, and that’s what we should do. Hope and faith emerge from different sections of the book and we will rejoice in those passages, but we will also embrace the difficult text and be true to them as they are written. There’s no hypocrisy in God’s word. It doesn’t cover over unhappy thoughts or hid the questions to our faith. It acknowledges them and embraces mystery. Scripture is the collision of faith and human experience and sometimes it’s messy. We will embrace it all because it’s only as we work through the whole messy process that we will discover and walk in ultimate victory. So let’s see what God has for us today!

Prayer

Father, thank You for warning us when trouble is coming, and letting us prepare for Your justice and discipline, I agree with Habakkuk You don’t make sense sometimes.  Why would You use the Babylonians to judge Israel? You are going to use the most wicked people in the world to discipline Your people.  That does not seem right! Here I am asking You about Your justice, and Your answer to my request seems more unjust than what I’m praying about!  How can You do this? This is not consistent with Your character. It doesn’t look like it’s in keeping with Your covenant. Yet, having said all of this, thank You this human honesty is in Your Word. You see it best to make me live in this situation. Thank You for reminding me that You are uncontrollable and You don’t have to do anything that I think is right. Ultimately, Your perspective is higher than mine, but be gracious with me because many times Your actions don’t seem to line up with what You have shown me about who You are. I trust You sovereign God, in Jesus name amen.

Habakkuk 1:5-17

“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. I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor. Their 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; they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.  They mock kings and scoff at rulers. They laugh at all fortified cities; by building earthen ramps they capture them. Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”

12 Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler. The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?

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