QT 8/2/2022 Hab 1:6, 10-11, Why prayers are seemingly not answered

Habakkuk 1:6, 10-11 (ESV) —

6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth,

to seize dwellings not their own.

…

10 At kings they scoff,

and at rulers they laugh.

They laugh at every fortress,

for they pile up earth and take it.

11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

 

NOTE: I think this is why Nebuchadnezzar was so surprised when he threw the three men into the furnace. The Babylonian's strength was their god. They were cruel and vicious. No god had ever prevented their success. But as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, the one true God is able to deliver, but if he chooses not to deliver, it is not because he is not capable. This is also our answer to why God does not seem to answer our prayers. It is not that he is not capable, but rather has chosen not to. And if he has chosen not to answer, there is a reason that we must trust.

 

Isaiah 43:2 (ESV) —

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

 

Rather than protecting us from the flood or the fire, he provides in the midst of the flood and the fire.

 

PONDER:

1. Do I pray to avoid the pain or do I pray for help to endure the pain?

 

PRAYER: Father, I do not like the pain. I want to avoid the pain. And I am so thankful for the times you have protected me from the pain. But I also know that in the times that I have gone through great pain, you carried us through it. I won't say I liked it, but I do know that I learned much more going through it than having avoided it.