HONEST PRAYERS

Habakkuk 2:1-6

1.  I will stand on my watch and set myself on the tower, and will watch to see what He will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

2.  And Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, that he who reads it may run.

3.  For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry.

4.  Behold, the soul of him is lifted up, and is not upright; but the just shall live by his faith.

5.  And also wine indeed betrays a proud man, and he is not content. He widens his soul like Sheol, and he is like death, and is not satisfied, but gathers all nations to himself, and heaps to himself all the peoples.

6.  Shall not all these lift up a parable against him, and a mocking riddle to him, and say, Woe to him who increases what is not his! Until when, then, shall he load the pledges on himself?

It seems like the Old Testament prophets were always asking God questions.  It’s important to know that God doesn’t mind our questions, as long as we learn to listen for His answers.

Habakkuk the prophet and Habakkuk the book is both full of questions ... and answers.  Habakkuk was fed up!  You can read the list of complaints in the first chapter of his book.  He’s unloading on God: ‘I don’t like what I see!  Bad people are rich, and the good people are suffering.  How long must I call for help?  God, it feels as though you’re not listening.’

Have you ever felt like that?  Did you know that you can tell God exactly how you feel?  He wants your honesty.  We often think He only wants to hear the good stuff – praise, worship, thanksgiving.  But God wants to hear your heart.  All of it.  The disappointment, confusion, frustration, hurt, loneliness.  He wants to hear your prayers filled with honesty.

Think about it.  Are you telling God what you think He wants you to hear?  Or are you being honest with Him?

Habakkuk has a whole chapter of ‘Why God?’ But here’s the key:  After he asked the questions and presented his case to God, he waited for God’s response.  And he waited expectantly.  Too often, we bombard God with questions, and then walk out the door.  We don’t want to wait.

Habakkuk waited.  And waited.  And waited.  God doesn’t always promise a fast answer.  He does promise perfect timing.  According to an old saying, He’s never early, yet He’s never late.

God’s delays in your life are not denials.  There’s huge difference between ‘No’ and ‘Not yet’.  When you realize God isn’t saying ‘no’, but neither has He given the green light, then His answer is more than likely, ‘Not yet.’  When you receive ‘not yet’ from God, use that as a time of preparation, meditation, and cooperation.  Let Him prepare you during the ‘not yet’ for the time when he’ll say, ‘Yes, now’.

James 1:5-8

5. but if any man among you is without wisdom, let him make his request to God, who gives freely to all without an unkind word, and it will be given to him.

6.  Let him make his request in faith, doubting nothing; for he who has doubt in his heart is like the waves of the sea, which are troubled by the driving of the wind.

7. Let it not seem to such a man that he will get anything from the Lord;

8.  For there is a division in his mind, and he is uncertain in all his ways.

God Bless!