You are a believer of Jesus, trying all you can to walk right with His word. But you look around you, the world, and perhaps even other believers, are chasing things of the world – desires of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and pride of life. Perhaps you might wonder “Why is God calling me to walk away from these things, but there are other believers whom seemed to be blessed by Him with worldly pursuits?”. “Does these idolatrous acts matter to God? Is it OK to do these things? If it is OK, why is he allowing them to keep indulging in their idolatrous acts?”
In such times, we might even feel tempted to return to the old ways He has called us away from. That temptation is rooted in a lie that “God is not doing anything because He doesn’t care about idolatry and sin.”
This is a lie – and I know that because in Habakkuk, Habakkuk asked God why He is silent to the evil, sinful and unlawful act’s of God’s people, the nation of Judah (Habakkuk 1:1-4). Then in Habakkuk 1:5-11, God answered Habakkuk, to wait and see for He will raise up the evil empire of the Babylonians (aka Chaldeans) to punish the rebellious people of Judah.
Habakkuk then raise a second question to God, on why He whom is pure and holy, would allow the Babylonians (who were more evil than the nation of Judah) to execute judgement of Judah (Habakkuk 1:12 – 2:1).
God responds to Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:3, that the judgement of the Babylonians will surely come. God calls out the wicked actions of the Babylonians in Habakkuk 2.
Habakkuk is a book where a prophet vocalizes to God on his struggle with God’s silence on the wicked behaviors of believers and unbelievers and God’s response to his struggles. Habakkuk ends off with Habakkuk’s responding to God in awe, praise and fear. He accepts the judgement that is about to happen, and responds to God in faith that even though he doesn’t fully understand everything, He trusts in God’s sovereignty. He will rejoice in the Lord and holds on to the truth that the Sovereign Lord is his strength, that protects and defends him thread on heights.
If you are a believer, struggling with why God is calling us to walk with Him, yet seemingly silent on a increasingly wicked world of believers and unbelievers, you are not alone. The author of Psalm 73 below, went through a similar struggle. He answers the question to what is the point of walking closely with God when no one else is – with the conclusion of the different life paths of the faithful to God versus the ones who aren’t. The faithful heads towards closeness with God. The unfaithful heads towards separation from God. Either now or afterlife.
If you feel that you are on the path heading away from God, it is not too late. Call out to God in prayer, and confess, ask Him to help you, to help you desire to walk with Him. Ask Him for encouragement, a change of heart, to open up our eyes and ears to read and understand His word. Ask Him to help you in your unbelief. Ask Him to help you with your lack of desire. Keep calling out to Him and take that leap of faith outside your darkness to trust in Him.
May the below Psalm 73 be an encouragement to and definitely to read Habakkuk (3 chapters only!) to understand it for yourself!
Psalm 73
1 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their keyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed yin a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
