Hope In The DarkSample

Where Are You, God? 

Human beings do not readily admit desperation. When they do, the kingdom of heaven draws near.

—Philip Yancey

Throughout our lives, we all reach points where we find ourselves wrestling with spiritual questions. I knew a man once whose wife of eighteen years was killed by a drunk driver. Sometime after it happened, I was talking with him when he erupted, “A good God wouldn’t let some drunk idiot kill my wife and let the idiot live! I’m not even sure anymore that God exists. And if he does, well, then I don’t want to have anything to do with the kind of God that would let something like that happen.” 

I haven’t experienced this man’s loss. But I ache for him just the same. What’s more, I could see that beneath his hurt, he wanted to trust in God. It’s just that in that moment, he couldn’t reconcile the pain he was feeling with the image of God that he wanted to believe in. 

I wrote this book and Bible Plan for the many people who are struggling to believe that God cares about them, especially when they find themselves in the middle of a crisis. When you’re stumbling through a valley, it’s difficult to see the light. You want to believe, but you’re having a hard time reconciling the hope-filled message of the Christian faith with what you’re seeing around you. 

More than 2,600 years ago, Habakkuk asked many of the same questions people all over the world are still asking today. And in his grace, God relieved some of Habakkuk’s anguish, even as he left other questions unanswered. But on the other side of his doubts, Habakkuk grew into a person with a richer faith, a faith that may not have developed as fully had he not struggled through his doubts. We’ll be reading through his story over the next few days. 

Think about it. If you understood everything completely and fully, you wouldn’t need faith, would you? But without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Why? Because faith and trust must emerge from love, not from a business relationship, a transaction, or some situation in which we have no choice.

Are you willing to ask honest questions? To wrestle? 

And more importantly, are you willing to listen for God’s answer? 

Pray: I’m ready to wrestle with my doubts and questions. I’m ready to listen for what you have to say to me, God. Amen.

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