Hope In The Dark

Scriptures: Habakkuk 1:1-4, Psalms 6:1-10, Matthew 7:7-8, Hebrews 11:6

Where Are You, God? 

Human beings do not readily admit desperation. When they do, the kingdom of heaven draws near.

—Philip Yancey

Throughout our lives, we all reach points where we find ourselves wrestling with spiritual questions. I knew a man once whose wife of eighteen years was killed by a drunk driver. Sometime after it happened, I was talking with him when he erupted, “A good God wouldn’t let some drunk idiot kill my wife and let the idiot live! I’m not even sure anymore that God exists. And if he does, well, then I don’t want to have anything to do with the kind of God that would let something like that happen.” 

I haven’t experienced this man’s loss. But I ache for him just the same. What’s more, I could see that beneath his hurt, he wanted to trust in God. It’s just that in that moment, he couldn’t reconcile the pain he was feeling with the image of God that he wanted to believe in. 

I wrote this book and Bible Plan for the many people who are struggling to believe that God cares about them, especially when they find themselves in the middle of a crisis. When you’re stumbling through a valley, it’s difficult to see the light. You want to believe, but you’re having a hard time reconciling the hope-filled message of the Christian faith with what you’re seeing around you. 

More than 2,600 years ago, Habakkuk asked many of the same questions people all over the world are still asking today. And in his grace, God relieved some of Habakkuk’s anguish, even as he left other questions unanswered. But on the other side of his doubts, Habakkuk grew into a person with a richer faith, a faith that may not have developed as fully had he not struggled through his doubts. We’ll be reading through his story over the next few days. 

Think about it. If you understood everything completely and fully, you wouldn’t need faith, would you? But without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Why? Because faith and trust must emerge from love, not from a business relationship, a transaction, or some situation in which we have no choice.

Are you willing to ask honest questions? To wrestle? 

And more importantly, are you willing to listen for God’s answer? 

Pray: I’m ready to wrestle with my doubts and questions. I’m ready to listen for what you have to say to me, God. Amen.

Scriptures: Habakkuk 1:12-13, Habakkuk 2:1, Psalms 46:9-11, Philippians 4:6, John 10:27-28, Matthew 4:4

Listen

Listen to your life. All moments are key moments. 

—Frederick Buechner

Be honest with yourself. When was the last time you sat and just had a real, live conversation with someone else, in which you took turns and genuinely listened to what they said? No devices. No TV. No music. No distractions. 

No wonder it’s so hard for us to listen to God. 

As we read in Habakkuk 1, he boldly asked God all the really hard questions that were on his heart. It’s hard to love someone—even the Creator of the Universe—if you’re holding grudges and hiding your true feelings. Habakkuk clearly loved God, but that didn’t keep him from respectfully challenging God with a request to help him understand the huge gap between what he believed and what he saw all around him. 

Once the prophet had finished asking his questions, he knew it was time to listen. The same is true for you. Habakkuk wrote, “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint” (Habakkuk 2:1 NIV, emphasis mine). I love these images. I will stand at my watch and look to see what God will say to me. Sometimes the reason we’re not getting answers to our questions is that we’re not willing to pause and wait long enough for God to reveal himself to us. 

The writer of Psalm 46:10 quotes God: “Be still, and know that I am God.” 

Notice what God did not say: “Be busy, and know that I am God.” 

He said, “Be still.” Be. Still. And listen. 

How do you actually listen to God? You can open his Word and let his Spirit bring truth to life. God speaks through circumstances, if you pause long enough to reflect. He speaks through people, offering divine wisdom from heaven. And he can speak directly to you through his Spirit. When you belong to him, spend time with him, and quiet yourself before him, you will learn to recognize his voice. 

Maybe you’ve been asking God for what you need. That’s perfectly reasonable; God wants us to reach out to him. But are you willing to listen to what he has to say to you, even if his answer isn’t what you want to hear? Keep listening. God will not abandon you in your time of need; he will tenaciously hold you close and carry you through your pain. 

Pray: God, I’m ready to listen. What are your plans in this situation? How can I grow through this? 

Scriptures: Habakkuk 2:2, Isaiah 40:8, Proverbs 3:1-3

Write

If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial, be strengthened.

—George Mueller

How do you react when life crashes in on you? What are your default responses, the things you run to for comfort, relief, or escape? 

Trying to avoid a situation only makes matters worse. We end up even more frustrated, because nothing changes. We may even feel guilty for not being strong enough to deal with whatever thorn has gotten under our skin. Ultimately, we run even farther away from the only one who can truly help us. 

Until we’re willing to have that honest conversation with God, we will never know peace. But how? 

Habakkuk helps guide us through the valley with three specific actions. First, Habakkuk questioned the apparent injustice of God. Then he decided to stop and listen to God. Next, he took notes. God told Habakkuk, “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it” (Habakkuk 2:2 NIV).

Why would God want him to do that? Basically, God told Habakkuk, “Write it down so that when I prove myself just and true, everyone can remember that I am a God of my word.” 

When God says something to you, record it, because your spiritual enemy is an expert at stealing the seeds of truth that God wants to plant. 

Maybe you’re thinking, “Come on, Craig! I get what you’re saying, but I’m just not much of a writer. It’s a great idea, but do you really expect me to get on my phone, tablet—or even crazier, take out paper and pen—and write down what I think God’s saying to me?” 

You got it. 

The very act of putting words on the page or screen produces a testimony, seals a memory, and helps hold you accountable. Record his message to you. 

Act: Come up with a plan for how you’ll regularly take note of your conversations with God. Then, start today.  

Scriptures: Habakkuk 2:2-3, Isaiah 40:26-31, James 5:7-8, Psalms 27:14

Wait

Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work. 

—Peter Marshall 

Most of us don’t have to wait very long for anything anymore. Just think about how antsy you feel when the dentist is running behind schedule. Drives you crazy, doesn’t it? 

Apparently, Habakkuk wasn’t crazy about waiting either. Nonetheless, he knew that was the next thing he had to do if he was going to make it out of the valley of despondency. God told him, “The revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay” (Habakkuk 2:3 NIV). The Hebrew word here for “appointed time” is mow’ed, which means the right time, the affixed time, the divinely chosen time that God permits something to happen. There’s an old saying that God is rarely early, never late, and always right on time. That’s summed up by mow’ed. 

Maybe you’ve been praying for what seems like forever for someone you love to come to Christ. So you wait. You might be asking God for another kind of miracle. For someone to be healed. For someone to be freed from an addiction. For a promotion. Or a spouse. So you pray. You wait. 

Then you wait some more. 

When you look through Scripture, you’ll see example after example after example of people who are chosen by God, close to him, who still find themselves waiting. 

God told Moses, “I’m going to use you to deliver my people and rebuild the nation of Israel.” Then Moses went on a forty-year road trip. Forty years! 

Now, here’s one of my favorites. The apostle Paul has a vision and met Christ. He’s transformed and says, “I’m called to preach. That’s what I’m here to do. This is all. I am compelled to preach the gospel. This is my God-given, singular purpose in life.” And then he waits. Thirteen years pass before that purpose begins. Thirteen years before he gets to preach his very first message! 

Some seasons in life, you just wait.

Pray: I’m willing to wait. God, what can I do to get to know you while I wait?

Scriptures: Habakkuk 2:3, Hebrews 11:1-40

By Faith

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. 

—Martin Luther King Jr. 

When it comes to faith, there’s going to be waiting involved. I love the way C.S. Lewis put it: “I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless he sees that it is good for him to wait.” We can trust God to do what’s best for us at the right time.  

Even when we’re forced to wait, God often reinforces his promises to us and reminds us of his presence. It might be through his Word, by a whisper, through a person, or simply through our believing by faith that he is with us. 

If you want to strengthen your faith, I know of no better place to look than the book of Hebrews. There, in chapter 11, we find the Faith Hall of Fame, a list of so many people who struggled, waited, lived by faith, and saw God’s promises fulfilled. There we find people going through unbelievable things—seemingly impossible trials—and ultimately experiencing a new level of intimacy with God even as they witness more of his power.

By faith, Noah obeyed God and built an ark, saving his family. 

By faith, Abraham and Sarah received the son God promised them, even though they were past the age of childbearing. By faith, Joseph overcame betrayal, slavery, false accusations, and imprisonment to save the nation of Israel. By faith, God’s people left Egypt and walked through the Red Sea as it parted on either side of them. By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.


These weren’t perfect people—far from it, in fact. They all had their struggles and doubts, their mistakes and infidelities, their flaws and their weaknesses, but they persevered in their faith and waited on God again and again. 

By faith, you will get through this. 

Think about it: if you had everything figured out, you wouldn’t need faith. You could live simply by your understanding. By your logic, but not by faith. But when you don’t understand something, that gives you the unique opportunity to deepen your faith.

Oswald Chambers said, “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” 

Pray: God, will you grow my faith way beyond my own need to figure everything out?

Scriptures: Habakkuk 2:2-20, Ephesians 2:4-5, Psalms 73:26, Matthew 19:26

Faith Tested

I am one of those who would rather sink with faith than swim without it.

—Stanley Baldwin, British Prime Minister 

What if you’re living by faith and yet you don’t see God’s promise to you fulfilled in your lifetime? Can you dare to believe he will still keep his promise, even if you don’t get to see it during your time on earth? Is it possible that you might grow so intimate with God that you’re able to keep loving and serving him despite your disappointment? 

Habakkuk is a good teacher for us on this lesson, because it was not until the next generation that God kept his promise and punished the Babylonians. 

That’s a long time to wait.

But the Lord was still faithful.


Habakkuk gives us three little words that we can cling to when it appears that God has not delivered on what he promised. No matter what you might be going through, never let go of these words. 

If you want to be able to grow closer to God—no matter what—then these are the three words you need to remember on your journey toward intimacy and ultimate trust and faith in him: 

“But the Lord . . .” 

You’ll find these words in Habakkuk 2:20, where the prophet, after acknowledging that he still doesn’t like what’s going on, says, “But the Lord is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him” (NLT, emphasis mine). 

The world may seem upside down, but the Lord is still there.


When you have nowhere else to turn, when your own ideas and resources have evaporated, when your control over a situation is in shambles, God is still there. When your knees ache from kneeling in prayer but you can’t tell if he’s even listening, God is still there. 

No matter what happens in your life, the Lord is in his holy temple. 

Pray: God, will you allow me to experience your presence in new ways? Will you show me how close you are? 

Scriptures: Habakkuk 3:1-4, Psalms 77:1-20

Remember

If you think God has forgotten you, then you have forgotten who God is.

—Anonymous 

When I’m in the valley, sometimes I simply need to remember. I return to who I know God is. 

Habakkuk’s third chapter starts like a worship song that acknowledges how hard life is and yet remembers all God has done. It’s another step, a really big one, in the journey out of the valley. 

Habakkuk prays, “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2 NIV). 

I remember when I was in college and more lost than you could ever imagine, and I called out on the name of Jesus, asking him—no, almost daring him, “If you’re real, and if you are there, do something.” I fell down on my knees as one person, and then when I stood up, I was a completely different person. 

And then I remember how God brought Amy into my life. I cherish her and the gift she was and continues to be from God. 

And then I remember when our daughter Catie was born, and how, when she was about three years old, Catie got into some poison ivy and ended up covered in a rash from head to toe. Before bed that night, she told me, “Daddy, Jesus is going to heal me because I prayed.” I remember thinking, “Wow, that’s really sweet. But I don’t know what we’re going to do if she still has this rash tomorrow.” I remember that the next morning, Catie came running into our room, buck naked and giddy with joy, shouting, “Look! Look! He healed me!” 

And that rash was completely gone. 

I remember when Amy and I were young, just starting out in ministry, and we didn’t have any money. We prayed together, “God, we don’t know where food’s coming from tomorrow.” The next day, we received a refund check in the mail. 

What do you do when you’re in the valley? You remember what God has done. 

And you dare to believe that what he’s done before, he will do again. 

Pray: God, I remember when …

Scriptures: Habakkuk 3:16-18, Psalms 42:5, Psalms 33:20-21

Accept

It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.


—Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes 

Sometimes, even when we remember all that God has done for us, it doesn’t change our circumstances. Sometimes we just have to accept that it’s beyond our understanding right now and just keep going. But we must also realize that acceptance is not denial. 

When you accept what God is doing, you don’t simply stuff your feelings down and let your heart die, even as you’re practicing your smile in the mirror and memorizing Bible verses. When you accept that God’s up to something that you can’t see or understand right now, you don’t just roll over and play dead and resign yourself to despair. No, you keep praying for a miracle from him unless he tells you otherwise. But you don’t pretend that everything is okay when clearly it’s not. 

Habakkuk certainly couldn’t pretend and keep his head in the sand. After he questioned God and the Lord responded by telling him that he was going to use the wicked Babylonians to destroy Israel, Habakkuk said, “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled” (Habakkuk 3:16 NIV). 

His response is visceral. You know that sinking sensation you get in your gut when something bad happens that’s beyond your control? That’s what Habakkuk was facing. 

When Habakkuk accepted reality while waiting on God, it wasn’t denial. It was faith. Not faith that God would do what Habakkuk wanted God to do. But faith in God’s character. Habakkuk goes on to say, “The sovereign hand of God is doing something here. God has spoken, so I’ll accept whatever he is doing, as difficult as that may be for me.” 

Sometime, something is going to happen that you don’t like. It may be happening right now. 

You remember what God has done. You accept what God is doing. You trust what God is going to do. 

Pray: God, I don’t understand what’s going on, but I accept that somehow, you are in control. 

Scriptures: Habakkuk 1:12-17, Habakkuk 3:16-19, Psalms 56:1-13, John 14:27

Trust

The best proof of love is trust. 

—Joyce Brothers 

Habakkuk offers us an amazing model of a healthy, balanced response to what had to be about the worst news he could have received from God. Even as his body reacted, he realized that he had a choice about what he was going to believe. He could trust his emotions. He could trust his current view of the situation. Or he could trust that God could somehow bring good out of an inconceivable scenario—the Babylonians invading their land. 

In your life, it may feel like the Babylonians have already ravaged the landscape of your heart. You may be grieving losses that occurred years ago. But even in the middle of all that pain, if you can choose to trust God despite all kinds of evidence to the contrary, then you will break through to a new level of intimacy with him. You will know his presence in the middle of your hurting. You will trust his character when you don’t understand your circumstances. Then, no matter what happens, no matter how painfully your heart is pierced, you can continue to take one more step for one more day. 

As with Habakkuk, your prayer becomes honest about what you’ve lost or will lose, even as you realize that you still have God. 

“Even though my spouse said till death do us part and didn’t live up to their word, I will still rejoice in the Lord my God.” 

“Even though I raised my kids to know better and they’re making very scary decisions right now, yet will I trust in the Lord my God.” 

“Even though we’ve prayed for someone’s health to get better and they’ve gotten worse, yet I will trust in the Lord my God.” 

“Even though our house will not sell and we are on the line, I will yet trust in the Lord my God.”


“Even though finances are tough and it’s going to cost four hundred dollars to repair my car, yet I will trust in the Lord my God.” 

“Even though I don’t like it, even though I don’t understand it, even though I know he could and he should but he’s not, yet will I trust in the Lord my God.” 

Pray: Even though … I will trust you. You are my God. 

Scriptures: Habakkuk 3:13-19, Psalms 62:1-12, Romans 12:12

Hope

A living hope enables us to have both sorrow and joy. Our living hope is an inheritance achieved for us by Christ. 

—Tim Keller 

The book of Habakkuk concludes with his prayer, “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights” (Habakkuk 3:19 NIV). 

When you consider what this prophet knew he was already facing, his sheer hope is stunning. “Even though the fig tree doesn’t bud and there are no animals in the barn, yet the Lord is in his holy temple. Even though it’s going to get worse before it gets better, be still all the earth before him. The righteous will live by faith. God’s word will be true. I will find my strength and my hope in the Lord my God, and he will take me to new heights.” 

Habakkuk wrestled with questions, embraced reality, trusted anyways, and found his hope in God. If you take nothing else away from this Bible Plan, I hope you’ll remember what Habakkuk’s name means: To wrestle. And to embrace. 

Both at the same time.

I remember when my youngest daughter, Joy, was barely four years old and playing on a friend’s backyard zip line. Since she was too small to keep herself from hitting the tree at the end of the line, she smashed her face square into its thick trunk. I can still remember hearing that crack! She fell to the ground, bloody and unconscious. 

Panicked, I found a pulse, although not as strong as I would have liked. We rushed her to the ER, and the doctors began running tests. Once she regained consciousness, they tried to stitch up the gash on the bottom of her chin. But Joy wasn’t having it. 

I had to pin her down. 

I was lying on top of her, holding her body and head still while the doctor carefully dressed her cuts and stitched them up. She was sobbing, “Daddy, what’s going on? Please let go. Make them stop. I want to play. Please. I just want to play. Please don’t let them hurt me.” But I knew that if she was going to heal properly, she had to go through this. 

Sometimes God holds like this, knowing what it will take for us to heal properly.  

We wrestle and embrace. Both at the same time. 

Yet in his arms, there is hope. 

Pray: God, thank you for holding me. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for hope. 

Scriptures: Hebrews 11:1, Romans 5:1-15, Mark 9:14-24, 1 Corinthians 3:11

Believe

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

—C. S. Lewis 

True hope requires a firm, substantive foundation. As the author of Hebrews explains, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). Without our belief in the character of God—and our relationship with him—as our foundation, we might as well be hoping in Santa Claus or some app. 

I realize that all of these abstract ideas like belief can start to feel detached from the flesh-and-blood, bills-and-bankruptcy trials you may be going through. But maybe belief is not abstract. Maybe it’s the only foundation when everything is shaken. The Apostle Paul put it like this, “we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5 NIV). 

Here’s my take on Paul’s progression from suffering to intimacy with God: When we’re suffering through hard times, we take God at his Word and believe that he’s still in control, with a specific purpose in mind. So we keep going, relying on him. As we keep going, hour to hour, day to day, week to week, we become stronger. Our faith grows, our maturity grows, our trust in God grows. As we get stronger, we believe in God’s goodness, more than our circumstances. We learn to believe in God’s promises.

Belief in God can be your firm foundation.

If you still want to believe, then God will meet you in the midst of your efforts to believe. Even if you throw your Bible across the room and shake your fist at God or question him, as Habakkuk did, God will honor the passionate sincerity of your pursuit. If you really want to experience God’s closeness and care for you as you go through trials—and you desire him more than just different circumstances—then he will come alongside you with each and every step. 

Pray: God, I’m choosing to believe in your goodness and love. I believe in Jesus, your Son, and what he did to save me. Will you become the foundation of my life? 

Scriptures: Habakkuk 1:1-2, Habakkuk 2:1, Habakkuk 3:17-19, 1 John 4:19, James 1:2-12

When You Question and Believe

Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.

—William Barclay, Scottish minister 

I don’t know what you’re going through or what you’ve already survived. But I do know this: our God is a good God who loves us enough to sacrifice his precious Son, the greatest gift he could give us, just so we can know him, just so we can glorify him on earth, just so we can spend eternity with him in heaven. 

He loves us that much. We’re able to love him—or anyone else—only because he first loved us.

When hard things happen, and the best you can manage is to want to believe, that’s enough. Don’t stop wanting to believe. 

Allow that spark of hope to grow by trusting that God is right there beside you. Pray and ask God to help you overcome your unbelief. Like Habakkuk, ask your questions and then be prepared to listen to God’s response. 

My prayer is that you would grow to have that Habakkuk kind of faith we see in chapter 3. But here’s the deal: you can’t have a chapter 3 type of faith until you’ve had a chapter 1 type of question and a chapter 2 kind of waiting. Because God often does more spiritually in the valley than he does on the mountaintop. 

I don’t have all the answers to your questions. But after loving God and serving Christ for more than twenty-nine years now, here’s what I can say: I’ve walked with Jesus for enough yesterdays to trust him with all my tomorrows. 

Do you want to grow closer to God? Do you want that intimacy with him more than you want a comfortable, easygoing, problem-free life? 

Then never stop wanting to believe. 

You can have hope in the dark. Because as you grow to know God, he will reveal even more of his love, his faithfulness, his grace. And over time you will realize, believe, and embrace that even when life is difficult, God is still good. 

Pray: God, I believe you’re good, and I’m ready to keep growing closer and closer to you. I’m in this for the long haul. Amen.