How Long, O Lord?

Hope in the Dark
How Long, O Lord?

I. Introduction

A. Lament is faith that when faith .

1. Habakkuk 1:2 (NIV) How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

B. Sometimes Scripture doesn’t give us ; it gives us .

1. Habakkuk 1:2-4 (NIV) ²How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? ³Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. ⁴Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

C. A crisis of faith is not the moment you stop believing in God. It is the moment when faith that once made sense begins to feel and .

II. The Dip

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

B. What happens in the dip

1. Confusion: When the character of God and the chaos around you no longer seem to align.

2. Discouragement: When the wait becomes heavy and the silence is draining.

3. Doubt: When prolonged confusion and discouragement begin to question what once felt certain.

4. What you do in the dip reveals what you about God.

III. Five Options in the Dip

A. Deny

1. Denial is using faith to reality; it creates a public that leaves the heart feeling hollow and unheard.

B. Disengage

1. The problem with disengaging is that increases .

C. Deconstruct

1. Deconstruction is when pain becomes the lens through which we re-examine everything we once held certain.

2. Deconstruction is not the enemy. But deconstruction without leaves you .

D. Dominate

1. When waiting feels unsafe or unproductive, feels .

E. Develop

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

IV. Conclusion