Habakkuk is a little book tucked in the Old Testament with a big message. We don’t know a lot about Habakkuk. He identifies himself as a prophet, and we know that he was a prophet with questions. This book of the Bible is a conversation between the searching prophet and God.

Habakkuk’s questioned God about why he wasn’t doing anything about all the violence and trouble his people was going through. He wondered where God was and why he wasn’t working on his timetable.  He knew that God had promised to work and he just wasn’t seeing it happen.

God answered Habakkuk and told him in Chapter 2 to write down the vision and be sure that it was coming when the time was right. He was basically saying, “I’ve got this.” God assured Habakkuk that he was still in control and he was asking him to trust his timing.

Chapter 3 gives Habakkuk’s response to God. He tells God that he heard him. The last part of this chapter in my Bible has the heading, A Hymn of Faith. Questions, when taken to God, is not a sign of lack of faith. It’s telling God that you don’t understand what’s happening but you know he has the answer. It only increases our faith when we ask him to help us with our doubts.

Habakkuk’s faith caused him to say, “Though the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” He is telling God that if all his livelihood is gone, he will still trust him.

What about us? Do we have this kind of faith to say if life as I know it is gone I will still trust God? We may lose income or go through economic downfall, but we could experience failed crops and empty stalls in other areas. We all go through periods of life where we feel like everything around us is crumbling, and nothing seems to go right. In those times when it seems that we are looking at barren fields, we need to take our questions to God and let him reassure us that he is still in control and that he will work at his appointed time.

If we seek God in our darkest times, he will give us the strength to continue. With a renewed trust, we can sing a hymn of faith to our God, who never leaves us or forsakes us.

“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)