Questioning God

Questioning GodI’ve been diving into the book of Habakkuk for an upcoming speaking opportunity. Habakkuk is one of the minor prophets, whose name means “embrace” or “wrestle”. This is a truly fitting name for the type of conversation that we  read in this short book (3 chapters) that can be found tucked away in the latter part of the Old Testament.

How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? 

There’s no big opening here, just cutting to the chase is Habakkuk by firing away with a huge question.

For the record, I don’t think Habakkuk is literally wondering how many minutes, hours, days, months, years he is going to have to wait for God. This is a ‘HEY, don’t you see what’s going on over here!? I’ve been asking and asking and I keep getting nothing.'

Habakkuk’s question is our question.  The context of our situation is different, but it is fairly safe to say that all are yearning for God to help in some way.

The stress or injustice with our job.
The pressure to pass these tests and get the grade.
The family drama that never seems to get any better.
The diagnosis.
The child who wanders from the faith foundation that was set up for them.

How long, Lord, must we call for help?

Hopefully you’re not here looking for a concrete answer on this one. However, there are 3 things that I believe with all my heart when it comes to questioning God:

1 - Continue to call out to God and question anything and everything.

Certainly God is big enough to handle our questions.  Habakkuk is often compared to Job, another Old Testament book, because of the questioning of God.  Beginning in Job 40, God responds to Job and reminds him of all the great, expansive things God has done.  Job’s questioning brings a sobering reminder of how HUGE God is.  Perhaps the prophet Isaiah’s writing says it best when he relays this message from the Lord:

          “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
          so are my ways higher than your ways
          and my thoughts than your thoughts."
                                 Isaiah 55:9

Habakkuk is a great book to see how honest questioning and dialogue with God brings an intimacy with God. If you haven’t noticed what God is up to as you call out to Him for help, continue to call out to Him. 

2 - Open your eyes to see the unexpected.

God told Habakkuk that He was about to do something right in front of him that Habakkuk wouldn’t beleive even if God himself told him about it.  Before we get too excited about these possibilities, it’s important to remember that God was talking about using the Babylonians to lay seige to the Israelites in Judah because of their sinful ways and refusal to acknowledge the One True God.  Not at all the answer that Habakkuk was hoping for.  Yet, God was going to get the glory by using such a brutal world power. This is beyond surprising to Habakkuk.

Sometimes God’s answer to my plea doesn’t make sense.

There was a time when I was afraid of little kids.  You can ask Erin, my wife, about this.  She was kind of worried about our relationship working out in the very beginning of our time dating because she has a great way of working with kids and there I was afraid of them.  Several years ago, I began praying about how God could use me as a church leader, and I kept seeing over and over that God was putting opportunities to work with families and little kids directly in my path.  What was once the furthest possibility for my life direction became reality as I served as a children’s minister for a little over 4 years.

3 - Spend some time in front of the mirror.

Don’t check out on me.  This isn’t going to be some hard truth about how our behavior or sin has led to the situation that we’re in.  (Which may or may not be true.) 

Rather, what if God is about to do something in you that you would not believe it if you were told about it?  What if God needs to show you something instead of tell you something?  And the only way that you can embrace God’s truth for you in the midst of this situation is for you to change. 

Questioning God is a part of the journey, but it isn’t the destination.

What has been your experience with questioning God?