Sermon: Unanswered Prayer and Justification by Faith
April 11th, 2010When you think about your life – do you ever think “I wish I were a prophet of God… someone who would talk to God and whom God would hear!”
Do you ever think God doesn’t hear your prayers… and, in fact, when you pray and expect things to get better, then, in fact they get worse?
And what has happened after you diligently prayed and things just seemed to get worse? Did you give up and turn your back on God?
Imagine something worse – you are a prophet, you can talk with God and He tells you that something terrible is going to happen. The victory of evil God predicts is so great, you cannot imagine that God would allow it. What God predicts is so bad, it sounds like the Devil’s work in fact!
Would you think it’d be nice to be prophet then?
This is exactly the experience of the prophet Habakkuk!
Habakkuk DOES talk with God and hears from God… and God tells him that the most evil people in the world to a Jew of his day would come and bring judgment on the Jewish nation.
All the glorious promises given to Israel by Moses seemingly were about to be dashed to the ground… Habakkuk’s world was, he felt, about to end.
The theological problem Habakkuk faced has to do with the “Righteousness of God”… how can a God who is holy and faithful to His promises both JUDGE SIN (including ours) and also be faithful to His promises which were made to people who are SINFUL and under God’s Judgment?
The theological problem boils down to the very practical question we have… “How can God be true and faithful when things seem to be going the absolute reverse of our prayer ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven?”
And if that is true – God’s kingdom seems to be moving in reverse – and not even those who wish to live in obedience to God seem able to because of the forces of evil all around them, then what hope is there that God is true and that His promises are and will continue to come to pass?
Have you ever wondered?
Have you ever wondered if God had abandoned you or that His promises had somehow become nullified in your case?
The problem in part is because we judge the promises of God by our experiences when God has demonstrated how He is fulfilling His promises to bring salvation to call who call upon Jesus Christ the Lord.
Sermon: Unanswered Prayer and Justification by Faith
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