“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”
How could a loving God allow so much evil and suffering in the world?
There are many questions that have the potential to shake our faith. And for many, these questions alone are the reason some walk away from God altogether.
So, what do we do with these age-old questions?
Well, it might surprise you to know that the Old Testament prophet, Habakkuk, went through a season of wrestling with similar questions.
You see, Habakkuk was fed up with all the evil and corruption taking place among God’s own people.
Now, if anyone should have known better, it should have been God’s chosen people. This was the very nation that had witnessed first-hand, miracle after miracle as God brought them out of Egyptian captivity and eventually into the promised land.
Yet, here was Habakkuk, crying out in frustration at the fact that things had veered so far off course. Why would God allow all this immorality and sin? Wasn’t God paying attention? Why wasn’t He doing anything? Why wasn’t He answering him?
Can you relate?
In Habakkuk 1:5, God responds.
You see, God had been paying attention. In fact, God was about to set into motion events that would go down in history, as the most powerful nation of the day would ultimately conquer the nation of Judah.
Now, what I hope you’re seeing about Habakkuk is this:
He was a man of PRAYER. This meant that he prayed regularly and honestly.
He brought his doubts to God. Absolutely nothing was off limits when it came to talking with God – including his big questions about God’s goodness and mankind’s evil.
We, too, can learn from Habakkuk’s example of how to deal with these big, life-questions.
How?
By bringing them to God: questions, fears, doubts, frustrations… everything. Be honest. Because when we raise these doubts and questions TO God, we give God the opportunity to help us work through them, rather than allowing our doubts to push us away from God.
After all, faith is all about a relationship with God.
How can we get answers if we don’t go to God first?
What questions do you need to bring to God?
Written by Bryant Wright, Founder, RFTH
WANT TO KNOW QUESTIONS GOD IS ASKING?
Read “3 Questions God is Still Asking” by Michael Kelley
