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Love
Teaching Text: Habakkuk 1:2-4
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.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Though it linger.
Presence
Watch or listen to the sermon. Then take a moment of silence and think about these questions:
Ask God to open your heart and mind to understand Ephesians anew as we start this season.
Thank Him for the blessings He has given you already, even those you might be unaware of.
In this text we see the deep questions of Habakuk - and remarkably, he goes to the Lord with his deep questions. Even if they seem offensive even to ask them.
Take a moment and write down the deep questions you may have.
Consider where you go for answers to the questions of your soul.
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Habakkuk can teach us to pray in advent.
“The church lives in Advent. That is to say, the church lives between two advents. Jesus Christ has come; Jesus Christ will come. We do not know the day or the hour. If you find this tension almost unbearable at times, then you understand the Christian life. We live at what the New Testament calls the turn of the ages. In Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of God is in a head-on collision with the powers of darkness. The point of impact is the place where Christians take their stand. That is why it hurts.” – Fleming Rutledge
Pray in a new way. New time. New places. New words. Expand your conversation with God during this Advent time of waiting.
Habakkuk cannot really understand what God is up to in his time -but he shows us a principle that repeats itself over and over again in the Scripture:
Where you go with your questions matter
“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” – Habakkuk 1:2
If we only take our questions to Google, or to our friends, or to our memories, or our best guesses we are ignoring the resources of God.
But it's not just like we aren’t using all the power or wisdom at our disposal. We are shunning the offer of relationship.
We have a record of Habakkuk as a prophet with something to offer the world because he took his perplexing questions to God.
Where do you take your questions?
Pray what you can. Not what you can’t.
If you don’t have answers, pray the questions
If you don’t have confidence, pray your doubts
If you don’t have peace, pray your pain.
Where in your life do you have more questions than answers?
What doubts overshadow your confidence?
What pain in your life is drowning out the peace you desire?
“The incarnation means that for whatever reason God chose to let us fall . . . to suffer, to be subject to sorrows and death—he has nonetheless had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. . . . He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He himself has gone through the whole of human experience—from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. . . . He was born in poverty and . . . suffered infinite pain—all for us—and thought it well worth his while.” – Dorothy Sayers
the author of Hebrews says it this way … “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” – Hebrews 4:15-16
Habakkuk is praying … but He is also waiting.
What do we discover as we wait?
God’s timing is not our timing
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” – 2 Peter 3:8-10
God has made promises that God will keep. The waiting and tension is a place for faith
Can we trust God’s character or have we married God for his money
When we pray, when we wait, we put ourselves in the position to hear God’s reply. In stead of only having our own resources to draw conclusions from.
Many others in Habakkuk’s day would have experienced the same events, but the person of pray and waiting came to know what God was up to in the midst of them and how to Iive because of that revelation.
What may help when you pray:
Write down what you hear
Remember: though it linger, it will certainly come.
Live by faith. My own false certainty is the enemy of going to God in prayer.
Consider this prayer:
What can I count on you for God?
Advent - god will show up. In his timing
Resurrection - when it looks like only death around you - its not the last word
Presence - you can meet God. He is near.
God’s power and presence go along with the pursuit of the life and way of Jesus in discipleship.
What can I pray:
Help me pray
Help me wait
Help me hear your answer (and obey)
Love
Read these notes and discuss the questions below:
Advent love can be the most valuable gift we can pass on to our family, neighbors, and co-workers.
Could we notice the longing and waiting of our fellow humans and notice their pain, doubt, and disappointments?
Can we step into their lives without trying to be the fixers?
Can you pray for your neighbor’s longings?
