Monday, August 6

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MONDAY

Do you ever remember your father telling you, “don’t talk to your mother that way”?  I do.  Dad was careful to always maintain a certain degree of respect and gratitude in regards to how my brothers and I spoke to and treated mom.

I think that often times, in a similar fashion, we can learn to approach God in much the same way.  We feel as though there are certain things that we don’t say to God.  There is a proper way to pray, proper words to use, and even if that method and those words fall far short of the reality taking place in our hearts, we routinely use them anyway.  This is a part of what I love about the Prophet Habakkuk: he breaks the rules in an effort to be honest.

Consider Habakkuk 1: 2-4

Habakkuk's Complaint

2 How long, O Lord, must I call for help,
    but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
    but you do not save?

3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
    Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
    there is strife, and conflict abounds.

4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
    and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
    so that justice is perverted.

In short, Habakkuk does not like the way that God is running things.  He is saying to God, “What are you doing, God?  This makes no sense.”  There is a great deal about the history and context surrounding Habakkuk that shed a little light on this passage and helps us to understand why he is so disappointed with God. However, for our purposes here this morning, I want to merely consider the way Habakkuk talks with God-- uninhibited honesty in the face of pain, disappointment and disillusionment.

I love this about Habakkuk.  I love his honesty and his willingness to speak the words before God that his heart is already saying.  Habakkuk is hurt, confused and frustrated and he wants God to know the condition of his heart rather than maintaining proper decorum, going through the motions and pretending to be OK.  Habakkuk can no longer do that; he can no longer face the circumstances that surround him and remain silent before his God.

I think that Habakkuk understood something about God that I often times forget: simply that God is already aware of my fears, failures and frustrations, so I can feel a freedom to be honest about them with Him.  The thoughts and feelings Habakkuk was expressing were not surprising to God.  I am not sure where or how I learned “not to talk to God that way” but somehow that is engrained in us at an early age.  The problem is that our failure to be honest with God (and subsequently with each other) produces an artificial and paralyzed faith that hinders our connections within the community of the body of Christ and prohibits the development spiritual maturity in our lives.  Honesty and transparency with God is not for God’s benefit, it’s for ours. In the context of a loving relationship with our Savior, you have the freedom to speak your heart to the One that can truly handle it.

Conclude your time this morning with this Psalm (13) of David and his honest expression before our God:

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and every day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

4 my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the Lord,
    for he has been good to me.

Pastor Sterling Moore