Trust in the Lord No Matter What

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark walked through all three chapters of Habakkuk, showing how the prophet's honest complaints to God, and God's answers, lead finally to a posture of trust even in the worst circumstances. The thread running through the whole book is that the righteous person lives by faith, not by what the circumstances look like at any given moment. Habakkuk opens with a lament that sounds, Pastor Mark...

Read together

1. 1 Chronicles 16:29 opening call to worship, give to the Lord the glory he deserves
2. Psalm 66:1-2 shout joyful praises to God all the earth, sing about the glory of his name
3. Ephesians 2:10 we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works
4. 2 Corinthians 5:15 Jesus died for everyone so those who receive new life no longer live for themselves
5. Habakkuk 1:1-4 Habakkuk's opening lament, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear
6. Habakkuk 1:5-11 God's first answer, I am raising up the Chaldeans
7. Habakkuk 1:12-17 Habakkuk's second complaint, are you not from everlasting, why do you idly look at traitors
8. Habakkuk 2:1 Habakkuk stations himself on the watch post to wait for God's answer
9. Habakkuk 2:2-4 God says write the vision down, the righteous shall live by his faith
10. Habakkuk 2:5-20 God's five-part vision of woe against the proud, closing with the Lord is in his holy temple
11. Habakkuk 3:1-19 Habakkuk's closing prayer hymn, fear of the Lord, yet I will rejoice in the Lord
12. Romans 15:13 benediction, may the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him

Talk about it

1. Habakkuk took his complaints directly to God rather than just venting to the people around him. What does that tell us about his relationship with God, and what does it look like in your own life to bring your hardest questions directly to Him?
2. Pastor Mark pointed out that the social oppression Habakkuk describes was happening inside Israel, among God's own people, not just among the surrounding nations. What does that challenge us to examine about the condition of the church today?
3. God tells Habakkuk He is doing a work that Habakkuk would not believe even if God told him, and that work turns out to be raising up the Babylonians to bring judgment on Israel. Has there been a time when you later recognized that God was at work in something that looked, at the time, like nothing but trouble?
4. The line 'the just shall live by his faith' sits right in the middle of a very dark prophecy. Pastor Mark described Habakkuk as being about a lifestyle of trust in God even in the toughest times. What does that kind of ongoing, daily trust actually look like for you, practically speaking?
5. Habakkuk ends with 'yet I will rejoice in the Lord' even while listing out famine, crop failure and empty stalls. Where in your life right now is God calling you to that kind of 'yet' faith, and what makes it hard to get there?