Habakkuk 1:1 CSB – The pronouncement that the prophet Habakkuk saw.

Habakkuk 1:2-4 CSB – How long, Lord, must I call for help
and you do not listen
or cry out to you about violence
and you do not save?
3 Why do you force me to look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.
4 This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous;
therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Learn from Habakkuk’s Groan

God Invites Us to Ask Questions

Jeremiah 29:13 CSB – But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

When You Ask, Ask Humbly

Job 38:2-7 CSB – Who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words? Get ready to answer me like a man; when I question you, you will inform me. Where were you when I established the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly, you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone while the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Habakkuk 1:5 CSB – Look at the nations and observe—
be utterly astounded!
For I am doing something in your days
that you will not believe
when you hear about it.

God’s Promise: I will do amazing things among you!

Habakkuk 1:6, 7 CSB – Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter, impetuous nation that marches across the earth’s open spaces to seize territories not its own. They are fierce and terrifying; their views of justice and sovereignty stem from themselves.

God’s Amazing Ways Are Not Your Ways

Isaiah 55:8-9 CSB – 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 “For as heaven is higher than earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Embrace God’s Promises

Habakkuk 1:12 CSB – Are you not from eternity, Lord my God? My Holy One, you will not die. Lord, You appointed them to execute judgment; My Rock, You destined them to punish us.

1 Peter 5:10 CSB – The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.

Embrace God’s Promises when Depressed

Deuteronomy 31:8 CSB – The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Psalm 40:1 CSB – I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit

Psalm 90:15 CSB – Make us rejoice for as many days as you have humbled us,
for as many years as we have seen adversity.

Embrace God’s People