Questions, Chaos, and Confidence: Praying Like Habakkuk

Have you ever prayed, “God, tell me what You’re thinking” when life feels unfair and overwhelming? That’s exactly where we find the prophet Habakkuk. He looked around and saw violence, corruption, and injustice. It seemed like God was silent. But instead of walking away, Habakkuk pressed into God with honest questions.

In this episode of the Press Movement Podcast, we explore Habakkuk’s powerful dialogue with God. Habakkuk wrestles with the reality of judgment, the problem of evil, and God’s surprising answer—He would use the Chaldeans, a violent nation, as an instrument of judgment. Not the response Habakkuk expected. Yet through his questions, Habakkuk learned a vital truth: “The just shall live by faith.”

We’ll uncover how God isn’t intimidated by our doubts, frustrations, or questions. He invites us to bring them into prayer, not to weaken our faith but to strengthen it. Habakkuk models what it means to remain faithful when we don’t understand God’s plan, to stand watch even when the vision seems delayed, and to live by faith no matter what.

Join us as we discover that prayer really does reach every single situation—even the ones that make no sense at all.

Follow us on Facebook or Instagram or enjoy our blogs and even more episodes at www.presstopray.com!

Transcript

Have you ever been thinking, God, tell me more about what you're thinking? Because these people are so terrible and it seems like nothing's happening and I can't believe you're really letting all of this happen in my life. That's where we find Habakkuk in so many ways. Join us as we start with the book of Habakkuk.

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome to the Press Movement Podcast. Thank you for joining us today.

As we look at the book of Habakkuk, I must say this is another one of those minor prophets that I have not really studied in depth before this podcast. And just another reason I'm really thankful to be doing this. But as I look at it, the word Habakkuk means embrace or ardent embrace, a passionate, enthusiastic embrace.

He is somebody who based on his name would have loved deeply and held on tightly. He was not a quitter. He wasn't one to just walk away, which leans itself into the thought when he starts asking how long, how long, it must be that something is exhausting his patience because he is the kind of man that hangs in there.

We don't know much about Habakkuk in terms of genealogy. Much like Amos, there's not a lot there to go on. And even when it comes to the book of Habakkuk, how historians look at it and biblical scholars, they'll say there are different theories concerning how to interpret this book.

Some people even say it's out of order, like chapter three comes before chapter one or that kind of thing. But as for me, when I don't know, I just stick with what's written. And I would recommend that to anybody.

Just stick with what's written. We do know this book is highly poetic. Whoever Habakkuk was, wherever he came from, he had to be somewhat intelligent because this is not roses are red, violets are blue.

Do you like me? I like you kind of stuff. No, this poetry was top tier. It was something that he really was gifted in writing.

It's in Hebrew that you can most tell that. But still, he was an excellent writer. Habakkuk stands out in history because he is one of the prophets that was talking to the Lord to understand how God could do what he was going to do in terms of judgment and not how is in terms of execution, but how as in terms of thought process.

He was troubled and perplexed by the inequalities of life. He just felt like things weren't fair. Judgment wasn't executed fairly all the time.

Yet, Habakkuk remained faithful, which further supports one of my core beliefs, and that is that God is not intimidated by our questions. We just have to be willing to understand he doesn't owe us answers. So Habakkuk had thoughts about the way God was responding to situations and he expresses them to God, but he doesn't change his stance or his willingness to follow who God is.

And we'll see that throughout the scriptures as we're looking at it. Habakkuk 1 and 1 starts with the burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. The word burden means a load bearing a tribute, which he did utter.

He saw, and they use the word saw, but he uttered, he spoke out this load that he was carrying. And it starts like this, O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. He is tired of the violence.

He is tired of the fight. He is tired of what he sees around him. And he's making that known to God.

Again, Habakkuk was being honest about wanting to know where God's thoughts are. God's mindset is in all of what's going on. Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and there are that rise up strife and contention.

Everywhere he looks, he's saying there's trouble. They're taking stuff. They're spoiling us.

They're violent. They're angry. They're stirring up stuff everywhere.

He continues praying in verse four and says, Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about the righteous. Therefore wrong judgment proceeded.

Habakkuk is saying there's no law that's helping us. There's no ruling that's helping us. In a lot of ways, he's looking and saying everything's out of control, or it appears to be at the very least.

We appear to be surrounded. We appear to be dealing with all this violence, and there's no enforcement for the righteous, the ones that are yours. It looks like we're just getting thrown in with everybody else.

But as he prays, God responds in verse five. He says, Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously. For I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told to you.

Now that word marvelously, we tend to think of it as like excellent or amazing, and it can be amazed, stunned, dumbfounded. It doesn't mean that you're going to be amazed as in impressed and elated by the result. It means it's going to blow your mind.

And I know there's songs about your mind being blown and all this stuff about what God's going to do. But in this instance, when he said that, he said, I will raise up the Chaldeans that are bitter and hasty nation. We shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.

When he says, I'm going to blow your mind and I'm coming for the unrighteous, and I'm coming for the sin in the camp. And it's going to be marvelous. This is not a positive in terms of Israel in the immediate sense of the word.

This means your jaw is going to drop by how bad this is about to be. Your jaw is going to drop by the way I'm about to fight. You're going to be amazed.

Like I said, today's mindset, every time we say it's going to blow your mind or marvelous things, we only think in the positive. We only think that can mean that surely God's going to do exactly what we want him to do, the way we want him to do it. And that's how he's going to get glory.

But that is not the case here. He's sending the Chaldeans and he describes them as bitter, which means angry or heavy, and hasty, which means anxious or impetuous. So you've got these impetuous, angry people coming for you.

They're going to come harshly, heavily. They're going to come quickly. They're going to come probably recklessly is what this describes to me.

And this is God's response to Habakkuk. God says they are terrible and dreadful. I don't know how bad you have to be for God to call you terrible, but terrible does mean dreadful.

And dreadful in this instance also means terrible. It's also translated as terrible 23 times, but it's also translated as the word fearful or to make afraid, to shoot, to pour is another way that word is used. So these terribly terrible people are coming for you.

And God said they're terrible. The Bible says their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. In other words, they're making it up.

I'm not even putting my hand in this. I'm not saying they can't do this. They can't do that.

No, I'm sending these terrible, terrible people with their hasty selves to get the ones who are deserving of judgment. Habakkuk was asking for judgment, but I don't know that that's the answer or the response he wanted. He goes on to say, the Lord does in Habakkuk 1 and 9, they shall come all for violence.

Their faces shall sup as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand, and they shall scoff at the kings and the princes, be a scorn unto them. They shall deride every stronghold, 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.

They're going to do all this, and they're going to credit their God with a little g. And Habakkuk begins praying to God again after hearing all this. 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 almighty God, thou hast established them for correction. In other words, God, you are going to put boundaries on them.

Why? Because you wouldn't send them without it. To me, that actually sounds like the faith and the testimony that Habakkuk is exercising in God. Because he knows the nature of God, that even when God is angry, he remembers who he is.

And he's not the kind of parent who's abusive. Abusive parents go outside of bounds, and they even make holy correction. But they go outside of bounds to hurt their kids.

They go to extremes. He's saying, no, God, you're the kind, what you do, it's for our correction. It's not to kill us.

It's so we can be better. You won't wipe us out because somebody in this generation has to recover. He said, Thou art of pure eyes, in verse 13, than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.

Wherefore, lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he. God, I still want you to fight about this. Don't let the wicked ones win.

And make us men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them. You're not going to destroy our rulers, Lord. You can't.

Please don't, because then we'll be scattered. They take up all of them with the angle. They catch them in their net and gather them in their drag.

Therefore, they rejoice and are glad. He's painting a picture here of how a fisher does fish, sending out a net because they have no leader and just gathering them in. And he's saying to God, is this what you'll let happen to us? He continues though, explaining it.

He's asking God, again, the boundaries for the righteous. Don't let it look like when you do sin judgment, it's everything and everybody. Because if you just leave us in the hands of this enemy and they just throw out their net and we're like a leaderless people, we're everywhere.

They'll just take us in, God, and they'll think they've done this. I do believe and love Habakkuk's stance as we climb over into chapter two just a bit, because I do believe he knows when he says, God, you're of pure eyes in verse 13. You're of clean eyes that God can see and he can see well.

So even though God is saying this judgment's coming, they're going to credit their gods with the liturgy for it, pretty much taking my hands off. Habakkuk is interceding to God for the people and trusting him to remember the righteous. And even before he responds, he still trusts the character of God.

And Habakkuk makes a decision that his judgment is not going to move me from him. In other words, he's recognizing that God has a right to make decisions. And I think that's actually one of those things that is so hard for us in daily life to understand that we don't always understand God.

We don't always understand what he's doing. We don't understand how he's moving or what he's trying to accomplish. But our lack of understanding does not give us the right nor the authority to move out of position.

Because Habakkuk declares in Habakkuk 2-1, I will stand upon my watch. He's going to keep being the prophet, the one that God is talking to. He's going to keep standing in the gap.

Why? Because that's where God put him. And it doesn't matter the decisions God makes. He knows how to be faithful to God.

And that is one of the underlying themes of the book of Habakkuk is faithfulness. Or it's not understanding that makes us faithful. Understanding surely can help us.

Understanding, just the two words together, stand under. They can help us be solid, be stable. But understanding is not always possible.

We do not always understand what God is doing. But we can always count on he put me here. And stand on who he is, that he is a pure eyes and that he knows what he's doing.

So Habakkuk 2-1 says, I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he shall say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved. He's open to being corrected or argued with. That's what reproved means.

When he says, God, here I am. I'm going to be right here. I'm going to stand right here.

I'm still the watchman that you've put up. And the Bible says, the Lord responded in verse 2, write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie.

Though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by faith.

A few things here, write the vision and make it plain. Why? Because it has to go beyond you. I thank God because vision, true prophecy, even in the New Testament, you look at the church, it is for the edification of the saints.

It is for the edification of the body. It is meant to build up. Somebody has to run off the word that is given.

And so he wants it plain because they're going to have to run off this. Somebody is going to pick it up, but he guarantees Habakkuk, this is for an appointed time. I have set it aside and it's going to breathe.

That's what the word speak means. It's going to breathe. There's life coming to what he said.

It's already existing because God spoke it, but you're going to see it come to life. His word, the vision is going to breathe. And even if it seems like it's not coming, just wait.

Because when I say it's coming to you, it's coming. And there's nothing that's going to hold back his word. And though that in this instance is not necessarily good for the people Habakkuk is serving, what we can guarantee is that when that's the characteristic of our God, that is the characteristic of our God.

That when he speaks, breath will come to his word. And even if it looks like it's waiting, wait for it. Because it's going to speak, it's going to breathe and not lie.

And we'll end in verse four. He said, Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just also shall live by his faith. He goes back to addressing the soul that's unrighteous.

And whether he's talking about the Chaldeans who will come or the people that Habakkuk is speaking of concerning the violence in the city and the things he wanted God to judge. Either way, when your soul is not right in you and is lifted up, God will judge. That word lifted up means swelled.

When you start swelling before God, he notices. And we often call that pride. And another principle of God is that everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord.

Though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. Proverbs 16 and five. When your heart starts to puff up and swell before God, he calls that an abomination.

And one thing that stands out is the word abomination because the things that God calls an abomination are things that literally go against his nature, his character. There's some rules in the Old Testament that are not in the New Testament, whether you're talking about mixing fabrics or that kind of thing. I believe it's in Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 22.

Where it talks about the mixing of fabrics. Those kind of things we don't see in the New Testament. Those were rules given to the children of God for that time.

However, the things God calls abominations are things that do not change. They are things that go against his nature, his character. And they are still wrong before him today.

And so what you see is that he calls everyone that is proud in heart an abomination to the Lord. God stands against it. And his response to them is that even if you join hand in hand, even if they all link up, they're not going unpunished.

He is going to respond. He won't hold them innocent. And sometimes I understand Habakkuk in that when God responds down here though, it is mercy.

For his most permanent response is the response he'll give eternally. So the principle of God concerning the proud, the ones who look like they're getting away with it, the ones who can just sin and our desire to say, God, will you just show that your hand is against them? Will you just move? Will you just fight? We understand that. We understand what Habakkuk was saying.

We understand when God responded, he's like, hold on, hold on, hold on. But don't take it too far. And we understand that God is committed to everything he's ever said.

But to rebut all that, to push back against everything that is seen, he wants us to know that he'll handle the proud. He'll handle the ones whose hearts are full of pride and they're standing up before him. They're swelled up, they're puffed up.

God's got that. But on the other side of this, the just shall live by faith. If you're going to know him, if you're going to walk with him, no matter what they're doing, no matter if it looks like the vision is tearing, no matter if it looks like they deserve retribution, no matter if it looks like, God, you're going to take this retribution so far.

Can you please have mercy? No matter what the violence, the chaos, the questions, the disappointments, the unfairness, no matter what, in spite of all that, he says, but the just shall live by his faith. Today, I encourage you that no matter what you're bringing to God, again, no matter if you understand God's actions or you don't, you still have a choice and a decision to make to live by faith. It is okay to tell God, I don't understand.

It is okay to say, God, will you really let this go this far? But at the end of the day, when God speaks, he still expects faith to be what guides our lives. And when you talk to him, when you know him, when you've learned his nature and you trust him, you'll understand I can carry these things to him in prayer and I can still stand up and live by my faith and confidence that he is who he said he is. And we give him thanks for even letting us talk to him about it because prayer reaches every single situation.

Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer. It's designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com