"Trusting in Faith: How Christian Believers Navigate Personal Hardships and Trials"

Why do bad things happen to good people ?

Why does God allow bad things to happen ?

I recently went through a deep dive study in the book of Habakkuk. Let me first start off by saying , the richness of this scripture is jam packed with knowledge that I believe we should know and reflect on.

To give a little background for those who may not be familiar with this short book , Habakkuk is crying out to God asking the Lord honest questions that we also ask this side of Heaven.

As we move throught the first chapter we can see that Habakkuk is complaning to the Lord about violence, iniquity, strife, contention, and wickedness among the people of Judah.

Habakkuk is saying "how long shall I cry for your help, and you will not hear?

Or cry to you Violence ! and you shall not save?

How often do you cry out to God and feel as if he isn't listening to you ?

Why does God wait so to answer at times , after we pray about it ?

I believe That these are the questions we wrestle with today. Can we be bold enough to trust Him and His timing while we wait ? How we wait matters! We have a choice to make here , we need to choose to wait WELL until He answers us. Its hard but remember, it was hard for Habakkuk to. We see him cry out but in the end we see God answer him as he climbs up to his watchtower. Meaning Habakkuk paitently waited and watched on the Lord's response.

In Habakkuk's eyes God seemed to be doing nothing but tolerting the violence, injustice, and mistreatment of godly people. Habakkuk's heart wasnt wasn't defiant , rather a submissive and sincere heart longing for answers.

Then we see the Lords answer. He say's Look among the nations, and see ; wonder and be astounded.

For I am doing the work in your days. For behold I am raising up the chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth.

God is telling Habakkuk that he already has a plan for Judah for its sins.

We see God using the Chaldeans to carry out this judgement. The Chaldeans were unmericful and ungodly . Habakkuk couldn't understand why God would use such people . He was actually appalled that God would use such a cruel and difiant nation to attack Judah.

My commentary states that the Chaldeans were so arrogant about thier military might that it was almost like a god to them. (vs11)

It may seem like God was tolerating evil or wicked and that He was actually punishing Judah. Judah was also acting wickedly , just not as corrupt as the Chaldeans.

"look around at the nations; look and be amazed "the Lord replied.

"For I am doing something in your own day , something you wouldnt' believe even if someone told you about it.

God did reveal to Habakkuk that the time was coming and the wicked would be destroyed. God cleary states

That only those who trust God and do what is right by His standards would not be shaken. We see that Habakkuk was confused that God would use such evil people as part of His plan. Which then seemed as if our Lord was tolerarting this type of evil.

Habakkuk moves to his second complaint.

O Lord my God, my Holy one, you who are eternal surely you do not plant to wipe us out ?

Here we see Habakkuk asking some good questions of the Lord.

He is distress that God would use evil people as part of His plan.

We should ask God questions. We may discover as Habakkuk did, that God's answers come though our suffering. We are to suffer WELL ! My commentary says " Waiting on God does not mean doing nothing. It means not going outside of His will while you do something. "

Habakkuk was willing to watch meaning wait for the answer.

Do you think as Habakkuk did and do you wait and anticipate for God to answer ?

Or, do you demand that He answers you ?

"How often God's answers come, and find us gone! We have waited for a while, and , thinking there was no answer, we have gone our way but as we have turned the first corner the post has come in. God's ships touch our wharves; but there is no one to unload them.... Until the blessing alights on your head"-Meyer

We see Habakkuk in this moment as having the right attitiude he expected God to correct him.

We now know that Habakkuk wasnt asking the questions because he knew God was wrong but in turn he knew he was wrong and needed to be corrected.

We see that he was saying God, I don't understand what you are doing, but I know that you are right in all things, you know what you are doing you already had. Jesus Speak to me and correct me transform my heart to mirror yours.

Remembering that God is in control even when it appears he is not, is the attitude we must have. Even when it appears He's not. God directs people and nations often without their knowledge for His purpose.

We can trust this because when we refer to Proverbs 16:4 it reads as follows

"The Lord has made everthing for His own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster. Meaning God uses even wicked, corrupt people for his good purposes. Evil is a temporty condition in the universe one day God will distory it. When evil comes it may be God's judgment on peoples sins.

We can see some life lessons in this short book 1:13 Why are you silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they ?

We may perfer a world where God instantly judges every wrong but that is not the world we have.

Yet in His time, He will certainly judge all evil and reward all good.

2:2 "Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets that the one who reads it may run .( Jer 30:2)

He also instructed Israel's kings to copy His word. ( Deut 17:18)

Reson being is so we can REMEMBER what we write . We read then at times forget what we read. If we take the time to write it plain on tablets we are more likley to remember because we wrote it down .

2:4 The righteous will live by His Faith

Why does God contrast pride with faith?

Pride stems from the belief that we know better than God does. While faith understands we are completely dependent on HIM . (PS:75:5-7, 11:16)

The first sin in the universe was not drunkenness or immorality or even murder IT WAS PRIDE.

Disappointments are inevitable, Discouragement is a choice

AGAIN

Disappointments are inevitable, Discourgement is a choice.

We so often miss this . We need to understand what we choose to discourage us.

3:18 shows us that if we exult in the Lord, We will in the God of our salvation.

Brings me to a couple questions.

How should I respond when situations seem dire, even maybe hopeless?

What should I do when God appears silent or allows me to endure suffering?

When we give all our trust to God we understand what that truly means. We have to look beyond what we can "see". If we want to honor His as our Lord and savior we MUST continue to walk by faith even when we cannot see. We glorify Him in all we say and do regardless of our current circumstances.

Even if the fig tree does not blossom...even if the flock disappears... yet I will ....rejoice in the God of my salvation . Whatever happens to me I'll praise the God who saved me.

Have faith my friends He is in full control.

Let's Pray

Father , thank you for your word,Let us reflect upon you and the words that you have written. May we remember your word by writing it plain on tablets. I pray that when we "feel" like you are not hearing our prayers that you remind us that you are always working for us even when we can not "see" . That we always glorify you in our suffering. I pray that we have the right attitude as we wait in our suffering. I pray that you correct us when we are wrong and lead us to you to correct us. Transform our hearts to what glorifies you.

I pray that we empty ourselves of of any self-entitled attitues we may have and to also get rid of any pride that we are harboring. We trust you we give you complete control of our lives .

We love you so much. ~Amen