“Oh Lord, how long shall I cry for help and You will not hear? Or cry to You, “Violence!” and You will not save.”
– Habakkuk 1:2
This is just one part of the first chapter of Habakkuk which encapsulates so many of the questions that we are all familiar with in relationship to our God. Basically, you read through Habakkuk 1 and Habakkuk is asking God, “Do you hear me when I’m crying out to you?”
Habakkuk 1:2 Reminds Us it is not Wrong to Express Our Struggles to God
Do you care? Are you good? Are you holy? Where is your power? God, where is your word? Where is your justice? In all of this, the honest wrestling of faith, God, are you worthy of my trust? These are questions that most anyone who has walked through painful experiences has wondered and maybe even said aloud to God in Habakkuk the book is a reminder to us that these questions are real in a fallen world, and that there is a good and right way to ask them.
That’s the whole picture here in Habakkuk of looking to God in faith and honestly saying, “I’m struggling with this. I don’t understand this.” Yet in the end, realizing that God is all wise and all powerful, and holy and good, and loving in ways that we don’t understand. In ways that He is working and he is working in ways that we don’t understand. It’s okay to pray before God and to say exactly that what we see happening here in Habakkuk.
God, why is this happening? How long will this continue? As we read through Habakkuk, we see where that can lead when we ask those questions in honest faith and humility before God, how those questions can lead to deeper faith and deeper understanding of who God is and deeper trust in God’s word, in God’s ways, in God’s character. God, we pray for that. We want that in each of our lives. We want to know you more.
Habakkuk 1:2 Reminds Us We Should Address the Lord Humbly in the Midst of Our Struggles
We want to trust you with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. We want to love you with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. God, we ask these questions that are honestly from our hearts and humbly before you. God, we don’t understand why certain things are happening around us. Why certain things have happened in our lives, and we know we will likely walk through things in the future where we will wonder where you are in the middle of it.
God, we pray for faith in those moments to ask those questions and yet to do at the same time what Job did to worship you, to trust you, to praise you, to say no matter what happens, whether you give or you take away, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Lord, we pray for that kind of faith and we pray that you would draw us into deeper faith through the trials we walk through. God, I pray for people who are asking these kinds of questions right now in their lives.
I pray that you would remind them right now that you do hear them, that you do care, that you are good, that you love them, that they would hear your spirit through your word speaking right now to their hearts, reminding them that you love them and you are committed to their good. That you will work all these things together for their good. Ultimately, for not just your glory, but their glory with you. God, I think about this in light of unreached people group for today’s Somalis.
Praying for the Somali People
God, what evil and suffering the Somali people have experienced in ways that I, we don’t understand and can’t comprehend. We wonder why, God, we pray. We ask according to your word right now, for the spread of your goodness among them, and spread of your grace among them. For the spread of the gospel among Somalis. God, please show mercy among Somalis. Bless our Christian brothers and sisters there. God bless your church scattered throughout the world where there are Somalis nearby.
Think about Somali population in metro Washington D.C. around me. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to Somali people that they might know your hope, your grace, your mercy amidst to use words from Habakkuk 1:2 amidst violence, God, pray for your salvation. God we praise you for hearing our cries and even hearing our questions, and drawing us closer to yourself through them. Working by your grace and in your wisdom, with your power in response to our Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray according to Habakkuk 1:2. Amen.
