3 weeks through Habakkuk helping students lean on God in times of uncertainty. One of the most frustrating things about our earthly experience is that things don’t always go our way. That’s compounded when we have an all-powerful God who has the power, but apparently not the interest or desire, in giving us the results we want when we want them. Knowing things can go wrong probably gives a lot of us an anxious “what if…” approach to life, but over the course of this series, we’re going to see if we can’t shift to a place of confident, peace-filled “even if…” in the face of life’s uncertainties.
Video Messages Included
Intro: If there’s one thing the world seems full of, it’s injustice. We know something is wrong with the world, but why does God allow it all to go on?
Truth: Habakkuk asked those same kinds of questions, wondering why God would allow the evil Babylonians to take Israel into captivity. But while God did deal with Babylon eventually, God’s ultimate answer to Habakkuk’ sprayer came in the form of Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice is God’s answer for injustice, and everything Habakkuk and the Israelite people experienced was moving them toward the moment of the cross coming to pass.
The Point: God is always moving for good even if…
Intro: What do we do when we may not see God’s answers to the injustices around us?
Truth: Habakkuk knew that feeling well, but in a moment where he was hearing from God pretty clearly, Habakkuk acknowledges that God isn’t the only factor in all of this. Satan is, too. But God has crushed Satan with Jesus’ resurrection from death, and in an ultimate sense He’ll utterly destroy Satan in eternity. So just as we didn’t physically see Jesus rise from the dead, we may never physically see all of the injustices resolves or our prayer answered in this life.
The Point: God answers prayer in His way and His time, not mine.
Intro: Wouldn’t it be nice to have calm confidence in the midst of even the most stressful situations? I think we all crave that, and the key to finding it may just be in this shift from “what if” to “even if.”
Truth: Habakkuk knew what it was to feel like God wasn’t holding up His end, but ultimately came to a place of belief in God and submission to His will. With one eye on God’s character and the other on God’s promises, Habakkuk’s “even if” attitude allowed him to grow closer to God in the midst of uncertainty and help millions of people throughout history do the same.
The Point: We get to choose an “even if” perspective every day.