Daily Devotion 04 November 2025

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3: 3

READING: Habakkuk 3: 1-16

The book of Habakkuk is about wrestling with doubt and trusting God's ultimate goodness and plan, when things seem chaotic or unjust.

Many of Habakkuk’s words are poems of lament, where the poet lodges a complaint to draw God’s attention to the suffering and injustice in the world and demands that God do something.

Chapters 1 and 2 feature a back-and-forth conversation where the prophet Habakkuk honestly expresses his confusion and lodges complaints to God (Hab. 1:2-4; Hab. 1:12-2:1); “Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” (Hab. 1:13).

God offers His responses (Hab, 1:5-11; Hab. 2:2-5), reassuring Habakkuk that He is aware of the injustice and has a plan, even if it's difficult to understand or seems slow to unfold - “Because I am doing something in your days - You would not believe if you were told” (Hab. 1:5).

The prophet begins Chapter 3 by pleading with God to act against injustice in the present like He has in the past; “Renew your work in our days” (Hab. 3:2). His poem that describes a powerful and terrifying appearance of God through clouds, fire, and earthquake: reminiscent of the Exodus, when God split the sea to free the Israelites from Pharoah’s troops; “You came out to deliver your people” (Hab. 3:13).

It’s this promise that enables Habakkuk to end the book with hopeful praise. Even if the world is falling apart from food shortages, drought, war, or whatever, he will choose to trust and take joy in the covenant promise of God. Although the crops fail and the farms are empty, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour”. (Hab 3:18)

Like Habakkuk, it is our choice to trust that God loves this world and is at work in it for good. We can recount all the ways in which God kept His promises to Noah, Abraham, Ruth, David, Paul, and other saints of ages past, and how the Lord has shown Himself faithful in our own lives. We can experience hope and joy, even in the face of hardship, because true joy comes from God, not circumstances.

Prayer

Almighty God, may our faith in You grow ever stronger, our life with You ever deeper, as we bring our laments to You and receive the assurance of Your love, in Jesus’ name, Amen