I Don’t Like Your Answer

Hope in the Dark
I Don’t Like Your Answer

I. Introduction

A. The dip is a sustained downward trajectory when what you believe about God is no longer what you’re experiencing with God.

B. The dip is the downward slide through confusion, discouragement and doubt.

1. Confusion is about your .

2. Discouragement is about your .

3. Doubt is about your .

C. Habakkuk 1:2-4a (NIV)

D. Lament is bringing your to God while choosing to stay in with Him.

II. God Answers Habakkuk’s Lament

A. Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV) “Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”

B. Habakkuk 1:6a (NIV) “I am raising up the Babylonians.”

C. Habakkuk 1:6-7 (NIV) ⁶”I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwellings not their own. ⁷They are a feared and dreaded people; they are a law to themselves and promote their own honor.”

D. The hardest part of maintaining “Hope in the Dark” is that sometimes God’s “” work feels like an “” weight.

1. Psalm 115:3 (NLT) Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.

2. Isaiah 55:8 (NLT) “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”

E. Lament is not . It’s faith refusing to .

1. Habakkuk 1:12-13 (NIV)

2. Habakkuk 1:13b (NIV)

F. God often brings before .

III. Choosing to Develop in the Dip

A. Habakkuk moves from the street, where there’s violence and injustice, to the tower, where there’s perspective.

B. Habakkuk 2:1 (NIV) 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.

IV. How to Respond in the Dip

A. Look: Refuse spiritual blindness

1. Looking for God in the dip is an act of defiance. It is refusing to let my pain define my perspective.

a. Rehearse what you know.

b. Rehearse what you know so you remember what you don’t feel.

B. Listen: Resist the urge to fill the silence

1. Listening means understanding that the in my head is not always the voice in my life.

C. Wait: Trust without control

1. How to wait in the dip

a. Continue your

i. Purpose helps maintain .

b. isolation

c. Practice courageous

d. Guard your

V. Conclusion

A. Habakkuk 2:4b (ESV) …the righteous shall live by his faith.

B. Jeremiah 17:7 (NIV) “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.”