Have you ever been stuck in The Pit and didn’t know how you were going to get out? Have you ever faced a struggle so great that you didn’t know if and how you would survive or get through it?
It is easy for us to trust God when everything is going well for us, but the real battle of faith comes when we struggle and when God appears to not respond or ignore our prayers.
When we are struggling and don’t see God working to make positive changes in our lives, will we continue to rely on Him, or will we turn from Him and try to do things ourselves?
Habakkuk was a prophet in the Old Testament who lived during a time of great injustice and oppression in Judah. He lived in the final decades of Judah, and he saw the rising threat of the Babylonian empire coming on the horizon.
Habakkuk wrestled with a profound question: "How can a righteous God allow such evil to exist?" and through his conversations with God, he remained hopeful and encouraged.
In Habakkuk 3:17-19, it is written:
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.
No matter what was going on around him, Habakkuk said he was going to rejoice in God and take Joy in God because God is his strength and guides his steps. Habakkuk showed true faith by continuing to trust in God’s wisdom and faithfulness, even when God seems inactive or doesn’t seem to care at all.
When life gets the roughest, we can trust that God will always be there for us; whether we can see it and feel it in the moment or not.
SOMETHING(s) TO THINK ABOUT
1 - What is your biggest takeaway from Habakkuk’s story?
2 - What is one of the toughest moments that you have had to go through? How did you make it through it, and what did you learn from it?
3 - When you get stuck and don’t know what to do, how can you follow God and wait for His direction?
4 - When you see someone you care about struggling, how can you help them seek God first and wait for His direction?
My Prayer
Our father. Thank you for all the blessings you have given me, and thank you for all the struggles you have already helped me get through. When I face tough moments, please find ways to remind me to seek you and your guidance. Please give me the strength to do what you tell me to do. Please give me the strength to go through what I know I have to go through while doing so in a way that is pleasing to you. In Jesus’s name, I pray. Amen.
For a printable version of this devotional, click here: Habakkuk: Trusting God in the Dark
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