OPENING: - Last week I dealt with the topic of Doubt as a child of God. In that message I stated how doubt does not negate faith, but states that my faith in this particular area hasn’t matured to the point enough where I am able to fully stand without wavering in this particular area. It is here we need to say like the man who came to Jesus to heal his son and say Lord Help my Unbelief.
Today I want to dive into a series dealing with faith in uncertain times. Possibly for the next 2 to 3 weeks I am going to be teaching from the book of Habakkuk. In this series it is my desire to pull from this book something that will help you search for the heart of God and not just His hand. During times of uncertainty, heartache, stress, grief, despair, and anxiety it may seem that we are in this all by ourselves. Your friends have forsaken you; family members may have turned their backs on you, and it may even seem that God isn’t listening to you. The question becomes “How do we have Faith in Uncertain Times”.
PRAYER:
BACKGROUND: - J. Vernon McGee says that Habakkuk begins with a question mark and ends with an exclamation point.
Habakkuk is a little book only 3 chapters long and a total of 56 verses that was written just before the world caved in for the people of Judah. Habakkuk provides us one of the most remarkable sections in all of Scripture, as it contains an extended dialogue between Habakkuk and God Habakkuk 1–2. Habakkuk is not so much a prophecy from God to the people but a compilation of the prophet's laments. Habakkuk questions God's goodness because he sees so much injustice, evil, and tragedy in the world and it seems as though God is silent.
It is one of the minor prophets. Understand minor prophets doesn’t mean he is less important than the major prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah, but the time span covered is less. He's also concerned because God plans to send Babylon, an intensely evil nation, to judge Israel. Throughout the book of Habakkuk, we see Babylon as an example of a nation that exalts itself above God and practices injustice, violence, and idolatry. In the end, God reminds Habakkuk and every generation that God will deal with evil.
Habakkuk asked God the kinds of question that so many of us have wanted to ask but have been taught that we should not question God like He is intimidated by our questions or that we could ask Him something that He couldn’t answer. Questions like How long Lord do I have to go through this, Why do you force me to look at evil, Why when I call your name you don’t seem to hear my voice, Lord Why Me?” Habakkuk 1:1-4 in the Message Version reads as follows:- “God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen? How many times do I have to yell, “Help! Murder! Police!” before you come to the rescue? Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day? Anarchy and violence break out, quarrels and fights all over the place. Law and order fall to pieces. Justice is a joke. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung and stand justice on its head”.
We have all seen the evidence of evil and tragedy in our lives. We’ve all been touched by it and we often bear the scars left by the healing process. We are often surrounded by evil and tragedy some of it may even be of our own doing because of poor decisions we have made and the condition of this fallen world. However, the book of Habakkuk reminds us that no place is too dark and situation to hard, no people to far fallen, no valley to low or no wall too thick for God’s grace to find us and change us in only the way He can.
Understand that while God may seem silent and uninvolved in our world, He always has a plan to deal with evil and always works out justice . . . eventually. The example of the prophet Habakkuk encourages believers to wait on the Lord, expecting that He will indeed work out all things - Romans 8:28 says “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose for our good”.
Habakkuk 1:1-12 says “The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god. Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction”.
Scenario: - A faithful God-fearing farther suddenly and unexpectantly dies from an unexplained and unforeseen incident. A young mother barely in her twenties is diagnosed with stage 4 terminal cancer. After years of working and approaching retirement your job suddenly decides to terminate you and close its door forever. The world is appalled while watching for 8 minutes and 46 seconds the senseless, brutal murder of a man and then witness the inhumane injustice as his murderer is allowed to be set free and walk out of the jail cell without a care in the world. Supremist groups are told to stand by - by the commander in chief as we watch people enacting their constitutional rights being ran down, arrested, and beaten and seemingly no-one cares. We pray and we pray, and nothing seems to change. So, the questions become Why? Why me? Why now? Why this? Hey - God where are you my world is falling apart! Everyone seems hell bent on destruction.
TESTED FAITH: – God wants us to understand whether we have the real thing. If we want to have a pure faith like purified gold, then God will put your faith in the fire. God intends us no harm in a test, whereas Satan is out to destroy you John 10:10.
God wants to make our faith strong and pure, 1 Peter 1:7 says “that the trial [testing] of your faith, being more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tested with fire, might be found unto praise, honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus”.
The testing of our faith is in order to make our faith stronger. Testing reveals to us where we are in terms of our faith as God already knows whether we will pass a given test. It’s like a test in school to see if you knew what had been taught.
It is as we go through the fire of testing that we can be strengthened, sanctified, and purified. James 1:2-4 emphasizes the sanctifying and strengthening results of testing when it says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Therefor; it is imperative that we understand the testing of our faith.
When God tests us, He wants us to succeed. He wants us to see that our faith is real and that it has been refined by fire. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, "In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
In other words, God doesn’t put us through a refining process for no reason. He is not malicious or desiring to see us suffer through trial. Just as a goldsmith only puts the metal into the fire in order to get rid of impurities, so is the way of our Lord. God will test us so that we can see where we need to improve. We can be sure that God designs each test specifically to show us individually and personally what our defects and impurities are so that we can be sanctified and changed. Testing therefore is something that we can glory in rather than to dread. But we must be willing to go through the fire if we want to come out more like Christ than we were before.
The result of God’s kind testing is to reveal just how much we believe His Word and promises to us. God is powerfully glorified by those who continue to believe even when things do not make sense and appear to be contradictory to what I was expecting. We need not fear the tests that God brings to us; rather, we need only trust Him to bring us through them. Why? Because God is good, faithful, and true, knowing that we will end up better than we were before. Once again, God causes all things to work for our good, even if it does not make sense, it hurts, or it is difficult. We will be the better for it. This is the outcome of Habakkuk; however, before Habakkuk or you and I get there we will have to have our faith tested.
1: Unanswered Prayer We are entitled to ask, Lord, where are you? Why do you not do something about this? Hey God, where are you at my world is falling apart.
Now we need to first clarify something and that is the purpose of prayer: - the primary purpose of prayer is not to get something but to know something. Remember I said my desire is to cause people to seek the heart of God and not His hand. We pray to enter the presence of God.
Mark 11:24 says “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Then we pray and we do not see answers to our prayers. We’re left asking, what’s the problem? Why does not God listen to me. Is my faith is to small that God ignores my prayers or any other factors causing Him not to answer me. Either way, the net effect is we are discouraged from praying much, unless we feel very desperate. We even begin to believe that this promise of Mark 11:24 is not for me.
But this is not the way God wants us to respond to unanswered prayer. He wants us to seriously press into the question, what is going on? Why isn’t God answering me? Because the statement “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” is an invitation to an intimate relationship with Him.
He is drawing us beyond what we have yet seen and experienced, and He is calling us to trust Him even when we cannot trace Him. Jesus’s purpose is not to shame us for small or undeveloped faith. He is inviting us to come closer and deeper in our relationship with Him.
What did Jesus mean by “whatever”? He made this promise to the disciples when they marveled that the fig tree Jesus cursed had shriveled up. One of the men who heard Jesus’s promise firsthand helps us understand what “whatever” means:
1 John 5:14–15 says “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him”.
Whatever is anything according to God’s will.
Understand prayer is a relational interaction, not just a service transaction. Faith is not divine currency that we pay God in order to receive whatever we ask in prayer. Faith is a relational response of trust in what God promises us. Faith says to God, I trust what you say so much that I will live by what you say. And those who are audacious enough to really live by what God says will see mountains move that God wants moved. That’s why Jesus said,
John 15:7 says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” “Abide in me, and . . . ask whatever you wish.”
Think about this. Which of our other close relationships are simple? How hard do we have to work, especially because of our own selfish sin, to understand and communicate clearly with those we love? Isn’t relational communication among the most difficult things we deal with daily? And these are relationships we encounter face to face. Should we expect knowing and relating to God will be less difficult?
Prayer has all the components of a relationship because it is the way we relate to God.
In every relationship effective communication is something we must learn. We understand that good communication requires more an intentionality effort. But if we really press into it, we tend to discover far more about that person than we knew before and experience new levels of intimacy and friendship with them.
The same is true of our relationship with God.
Therefore, Jesus tells us in Luke 18:1 says, “ought always to pray and not lose heart”. He knows that we are tempted to lose heart by what seems like unanswered prayer. Sometimes YES are faith being small and undeveloped. Jesus knows this and he wants to grow our faith. He wants us to press into his promise and get closer to Him.
Those who abide in Christ, and have Christ’s words abiding in them, may ask whatever they wish, and it will be done for them. What does such a life look like? It looks like the Old Testament saints listed in Hebrews 11 who really pressed in to know God. It looks like the faithful men and women of the New Testament.
If “whatever you ask in prayer” has not happened yet, do not assume it cannot or won’t. Don’t give up. This promise is an invitation to come closer and deeper in to knowing God and not just receiving from Him.
Remember: -
1. God is still God, whether He answers my prayers the way I want Him to or not. Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. My trust in Him and understanding of Him cannot be dependent on how my prayers turn out.
2. God ALWAYS answers prayers. He just might not answer them in the time or way I want Him to answer them.
3. Waiting produces patience. What we often fail to realize is that patience = faith. We pray, "God make me more faithful."
4. God's sole job is not to keep me happy. There is no law that says God must keep me happy. He often does because he loves me.
5. The benefit of unanswered prayer is that it grows your trust in God. When God doesn’t answer prayer, you have to trust Him more, which means it grows your trust in Him. The benefit of growing your trust is that your faith will grow. Faith always grows when the believer’s trust grows. In reality, it is a great benefit to the believer when God allows your faith to grow because the more faith you have, the more you will please the LORD.
Understand God has not given up you. He does not have better or more important people to deal with. He does not discount your prayer as stupid or worthless. He doesn't see you as needy. He loves your need. He loves your longing. He loves you voice that calls out for his name. And he desires for us to draw closer to Him.
END OF PART 1 Bishop Maughmer
