Satan, Demons, and Zombies
A special Halloween message by pastor Mark Driscoll preached live at The Trinity Church on Sunday October 30, 2017.
From Routine to Real Relationship with God Part 5: A Study in Habakkuk
You are likely familiar with something called the “Stages of Grief.” A researcher named Kübler-Ross studied dying patients and those who loved them as they passed from this life. The research concluded that people go through five stages of grief in varying orders: 1. denial and isolation, 2. anger, 3. bargaining, 4. depression, and 5. acceptance.
As you read the short book of Habakkuk (you can do this in 10–15 minutes), you will likely see each of these stages of grief as he is processing his pain through prayer. As you arrive at the third and final chapter, you will see something else: worshipful thanksgiving. For the Christian, there should be a sixth stage of grief: worshiping God by faith and trusting Him to one day and some way work it all out for His glory and our good. Habakkuk 3:17–19 (ESV) says,
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
In our day, this would be like saying something like, “Though there is no food in my house, no money in my account, no cure for my cancer, no reconciliation with my loved ones, and no hope for my future, I will put on worship music and sing to God from a glad heart.”
It sounds crazy right? It is easy to worship God when life is wonderful. It can be much harder to worship God when life is awful. Worship is by faith trusting that the God who took care of our biggest problem of sin will one day take care of all our problems.
The opposite of worship is idolatry. This is a big theme in the Bible, and the focus of the first two of the Ten Commandments; there is one God, and we are to worship Him alone, not idols. The final line of an entire book of the Bible says, “Keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21 ESV).
Although the thing being idolized may not be bad, idolatry is often a good thing standing in God’s place, which is a bad thing. Idolatry is often the result of seeking to use God to get what we want. The problem with this is that God is not the end we seek, but rather the means to another end we seek. We worship God so that we will get healed, get rich, or get something else we want. When He doesn’t come through, we become agitated and frustrated that our worship isn’t working. This is not how God works. God does not exist to give us our idols so that we can worship them instead of Him. Worship is seeing God as our end, and worship as a means to connecting with and becoming more like God through our relationship. Worship can happen whether we are sick or healthy, poor or rich, dying or living, crying or laughing. Even though life changes, the goodness of God does not. When God, instead of our idol, becomes the gravitational center of our emotional universe, we become healthy enough to process the problems and pains of life with God.
When change, crisis, or calamity hits our routine, we are given an opportunity to move from routine to real relationship with God through worship. Practically, this means that we go to church to be with God’s people in God’s presence, learn from God’s Word, and open our mouths and hearts to cry out to God in faith that He hears us, loves us, and will never leave us nor forsake us even if everything else is being taken from us.
What is your worship routine at church and at home? Is your worship routine building your relationship with God? If not, what changes can be made?
From Routine to Real Relationship with God Part 4: A Study in Habakkuk
My wife, Grace, and I met when we were 17 years old in 1988. We married at the age of 21 in 1992. We are best friends, love one another, do life together, do ministry together, and raise five kids together. Nonetheless, even the best relationships hit rough patches and dry spells where it feels like the routine of life has overtaken the life-giving relationship.
The same thing that is true of our human relationships is also true of our relationship with God. Even our Bible study time to hear from God, learn about God, and grow in relationship with God can turn into just another thing we do that isn’t really changing who we are. It’s not that routine is bad, but that routine can become bad when it is not deepening the relationship.
A man named Habakkuk serves as a great example of how to maintain a life-giving habit of Bible reading. He was by all accounts a mature believer who knew the Bible. When a crisis hit his life, he needed a word from God, so he opened up the Word of God. There, he did a deep-dive Bible study in the book Exodus to see how God can rescue His people from a crisis. He pens his own summary of his findings in Habakkuk 3:2–16, which is essentially a page from his personal Bible study journal.
How can you improve your Bible study? How can you get out of the rut of a routine and into a real relationship? Entire books have been written on this subject, but the following suggestions might be a simple and helpful place to begin.
Three Keys to Better Bible Study
Decide between a book study or a burden study.
A book study means choosing a book of the Bible—or section of a book of the Bible—and spending weeks or months reading it, studying it, memorizing portions of it, and becoming so familiar with it that it becomes a helpful friend. A burden study is when something in your life becomes a burden and God the Holy Spirit presses you to study it in great depth. So, you trace that theme through the Bible seeking to get God’s wisdom for your burden. Examples would include: healing from a broken heart, being a good friend, or reigning in your tongue.
Don’t keep plowing the same field over and over.
Sometimes we enjoy a specific genre of literature in the Bible, author, or section of Scripture so much that we don’t much venture out from that place. When that happens, we can become like someone who eats their favorite food for every meal rather than eating a balanced diet of various nutrients. We constantly need to go to new places in Scripture to get new nourishment from God for our soul.
It’s less about how much you read and more about how much you retain.
Think of a lifetime of Bible study as a cross-country road trip adventure. The goal should not be to drive as fast as you possibly can. Instead, slow down, pull over, see sights, explore some back roads, get out and take some hikes, and appreciate all that is available. Similarly, just reading the Bible as fast as you can may not be the most helpful if you do not retain what you are reading. For this reason, it is often good to focus more on how much you are retaining than on how much you are reading.
Is any one of these three areas one where you could make improvements? What would those improvements look like?
From Routine to Real Relationship with God Part 3: A Study in Habakkuk
Just as your body needs food, your soul needs Scripture. Without nourishment, both begin to grow weak and ill. Our Bible study time can easily fall into the rut of a rote routine that does not build relationship with God. In Habakkuk 3:2–16, we see the example of someone who has moved into a real relationship with God through Bible study. He is reflecting back on the book of Exodus and how God delivered His people from slavery and bondage in Egypt. Even though they were freed to grow in a living relationship with God by following in His presence by faith as He led them through the wilderness, they longed to go back to their dead routine. Habakkuk summarizes all of this in his own poetic words as he journals out his Bible study as a prayer to God.
In one of the key lines of his prayerful Bible study, Habakkuk asks God, “In wrath remember mercy” (v. 2, ESV). The wrath of God is not popular today. If you talk much about the wrath of God, you will quickly experience the wrath of people who do not like the wrath of God. The Bible has a lot to say about the wrath of God. In the Old Testament alone, roughly 20 different words are used to speak of God’s wrath roughly 600 times.
The wrath of God is closely tied to the holiness and justice of God. Though the Bible does tell us that God is love, the most common attribute of God mentioned in the Bible is God’s holiness. The opposite of God’s holiness is our sinfulness.
Just as we want criminals to be picked up by the police, terrorists to be stopped by soldiers, and things stolen from us to be returned, so too does God deserve justice. God’s justice culminates in a final judgment and eternal sentencing to hell where the punishment fits the crime perfectly. Jesus Himself speaks of hell more than anyone else in the Bible as the place where God’s wrath is poured out in justice against sinners.
Because we are the guilty facing a terrible fate, we might feel a bit like Habakkuk did when he said, “I fear” and “my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.”
Thankfully, in wrath God did remember mercy. Habakkuk’s prayer was answered at the cross of Jesus Christ. There, Jesus took our place and endured the wrath we deserve. Jesus put us in His place to receive the mercy we do not deserve.
The question is not whether or not we are sinners, or whether God has a right to judge us. Instead, the only question is whether or not we have placed our faith in Jesus, as Habakkuk did, and live as he said in 2:4, “by faith” in the God of wrath and mercy. This is why John can categorize everyone who has ever lived into two groups, saying in John 3:36 (ESV), “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
In all of this, we learn that the key to understanding the entire Bible is connecting it all to the person and work of Jesus. Furthermore, the point of all Bible study is to help us grow into a deeper relationship with God, which is Habakkuk’s example.
What is your Bible study routine? Is your Bible study routine building your relationship with God? If not, what changes can be made?
From Routine to Real Relationship with God Part 2: A Study in Habakkuk
Prayer is where we enter into God’s presence to speak to God like a child does to a parent. God does not need prayer, but we do. In prayer we do not tell God something He does not know or get God to do what we want Him to do. Instead, prayer is largely about deepening a real relationship with God, because all relationships require time and talk for people to grow together.
Prayer can easily become routine for us. Prayer can fall into just another task to be completed, with little passion, before we eat our dinner or fall asleep at night. Chapter 3 of Habakkuk is a prayer from the journal of a real man in real toil crying out to a real God for real comfort. He says it this way in Habakkuk 3:1 (ESV): “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet.”
From the example of Habakkuk, we can learn a lot about prayer, including five benefits.
Five Benefits of Prayer
Prayer is how you let God be God.
Since God knows all and rules over all, prayer reminds us that we do not have to do God’s job. This should relieve a lot of our stress.
Prayer is how you let you be you.
In prayer, we can get honest with God about who we are, where we are, and what we are struggling with or are grateful for.
Prayer is how you deepen relationship.
No relationship can flourish unless the persons involved get together and talk at the heart level. The same is true in our relationship with God.
Prayer is how you release pressure.
Life continually brings us stress and pressure. In prayer, a release valve is turned so that our stress levels are reduced. This keeps us from blowing up physically, mentally, spiritually, and/or emotionally.
Prayer is how you transfer burden.
In the ancient world, much of the heavy work of labor was done by an ox that would pull a load or a plow. When the job became too much for one ox to bear, people would yoke two oxen together to carry the load. Jesus knows that we also find ourselves laden with burdens that we cannot bear and loads that we cannot carry. He therefore tells us to pray and transfer much of the burden to Him, saying in Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV),
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
What is your prayer routine? Is your prayer routine building your relationship with God? If not, what changes can be made?
From Routine to Real Relationship with God Part 1: A Study in Habakkuk
We are creatures of habit. From morning to bedtime, we follow routines and routes to our most common destinations (that we could make with our eyes closed). Life falls into predictable patterns. These routines are not necessarily bad for tasks, but they can be detrimental to relationships with people. After all, people need us to be emotionally present, engaged, and responsive for there to be a healthy relationship, while tasks don’t require relationship at all. Since God is a person, our relationship with Him requires connection.
Habakkuk is a man who walked with God as a mature believer by all accounts. His prayer life, Scripture study, and worship of God in the Old Covenant version of church were almost certainly frequent and faithful. Everything changed when his life got shaken like a snow globe. Everything that he had seen as stable in his life was moved, and he needed to go to a deeper level of faith in relationship with God to get through a crisis that was overtaking his life. This may sound like your life or the life of someone you know: The routine with God was “working” until the circumstances of life so change that you need to move from a routine to a deeper and more real relationship with God.
Sadly, some people do not use their troubling times to press into deeper and more real relationship with God. Instead, some simply deny that God exists. Others, sadly, seek to edit God and create a version of Him that is not the real God. Still others run from God rather than to Him even using their suffering as an excuse to justify their sinning. What Habakkuk does and what we should do is run to God. Often, we want God to bring resolution, but He is more concerned about our relationship. We want God to remove our problems, but He is more concerned about inviting us into His presence. This is the case with Habakkuk.
How do you know that you have moved from routine to real relationship with God? In examining the example of Habakkuk throughout the book, which reads like pages from his personal journal, we learn the following six signs that you’ve gone from routine to real relationship.
Six Signs You’ve Gone from Routine to Real Relationship with God and Others
You bring up your tough times.
You own your own struggles, fears, and shortcomings.
You can talk about tough times in an honest and healthy way.
You have worked it through with God and can help others.
You have grown in your love for and faith in God.
You are able to worship God from the heart no matter what happens.
What is your routine with God in regard to prayer, Bible study, and worship? Is that routine strengthening or weakening your relationship with God?
If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil? Part 5: A Study in Habakkuk
God shows incredible love through His patience for our fallen, evil world, but what exactly is God’s role in dealing with our problems? Is He silent? Is He powerless? These four points will explain how God’s goodness is displayed in the midst of evil circumstances.
Four Signs of God’s Goodness in the Midst of Evil
Satan has done a good job getting people to blame God for his deeds.
Some things that are evil are in fact demonic, meaning that Satan and demons are fully or partly responsible. It is important to note that Satan and demons do exist, are evil, and are at work in the world in powerful ways.
God is so powerful and so good that He defeats evil by turning it toward good.
For example, Joseph’s brothers betrayed him, abandoned him, and seemingly destroyed him. His ensuing years were spent in slavery and prison. After many years, upon reuniting with his brothers, we hear him say in Genesis 50:20 (ESV), “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Many years later through the evil of the crucifixion, God would use the sins of Jesus’ betrayer Judas Iscariot, religious leaders who opposed Jesus, and the Roman government who murdered Jesus to fulfill His plan of salvation. Romans 8:28 (ESV) promises that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Sometimes God uses the worst evils to bring about the greatest good.
God is not done.
In the middle of a movie it is difficult to judge the ending because there is often a wild plot twist near the end. So it is with life as we know it. God is the author of history and knows the future, and we are in the middle of it watching it unfold. In the middle, we must trust that Jesus, the Prince, will get His Princess, the Church, rescued from that old Dragon, the Devil. In that day, those who trust Jesus will find eternity wonderful, while those who do not will find it woeful.
Our choices are within the limits God allows and, if needed, overcome by His choices.
Indeed, we have each suffered evil and caused others to suffer from our evil. As a result, life on the earth can seem hopeless, out of control, and pointless. There is much that we can grieve, things we wish we’d never done, and words we wish we’d never said. All of these choices, including our worst ones, are still under the control of a good God determined to get us home.
To use an analogy used by an old preacher, passengers on a ship make choices for which they are responsible and which affect their life and the lives of others. However, their choices, and the effects of those choices, are limited by the fact that they are on a ship over which they are not the captain. Over all of the passengers and their choices, the captain remains at the helm determined to bring the ship safely to port. History is a ship, Jesus is the captain, and despite all the mutiny on the boat, He is still at the helm and will get us home.
What do you most look forward to in the Kingdom of God? Whom do you most look forward to reuniting with?
If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil? Part 4: A Study in Habakkuk
The Bible says that God is awesome. Experience says that life is awful. How can these two things be reconciled? If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good why is there suffering and evil? Many people have debated this point and even written books to try to resolve it. In Habakkuk 1:12 (ESV), we are reminded that God is good, not evil, and that He has set a day when He will right all wrongs, saying,
Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O
LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established
them for reproof.
It is helpful to consider these five things about evil and its relation to God:
Five Distinctions About Evil
It is difficult to call something evil unless one starts with an understanding that there is a God who is good.
The Bible says that God is good, that God made the world good, and that we know something about good and evil because of the conscience that God placed within us. Without some standard – such as God – above and beyond the world, it is difficult to have any grounds upon which to appeal to and judge behavior by.
Evil is not something that exists independently from good.
Since the early church father Augustine, Christian philosophers have referred to evil as a privation. What they mean is that God makes things good and that Satan and sin corrupt them. Similarly, it is said that blindness is not a thing in and of itself, but rather a lack of sight. Practically, this means that apart from God and the good, there would be no evil, since evil can only corrupt in the same way that rust cannot exist without metal.
Not all suffering is evil.
Some suffering is in fact good because it warns us, thereby preventing greater harm. For example, when a surgeon causes pain to cut cancer out of someone’s body, the patient experiences suffering, but it is for good, as it is to prevent greater harm or even death.
Love requires a choice.
When we choose to love someone, it has to be from the heart. For us to truly love God and others, there has to be a real choice to choose otherwise. This is what is commonly referred to as free will. Without it, we may not have sin, folly, or evil, but we also may not have love and real relationship. That would not be a better world.
Perhaps none of us truly wants God to deal with all evil immediately and justly.
If He did, we would all be sent to hell immediately to serve our eternal sentence. Instead, we want God to be patient and kind with us and the people we love; at the same time we want Him not to be so nice to the people we don’t love. Thankfully, God is patient and loving toward all while still remaining just. As 2 Peter 3: 9–10 (ESV) says,
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient
toward you not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away
with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth
and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
How have you seen God’s patience at work in your life?
If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil? Part 3: A Study in Habakkuk
Frustrated and fearful, a man named Habakkuk brought his burdens to God in faith. Culture was against him, but he knew that giving in to sin wouldn’t pay off in the end. God tells Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:2–5 (ESV),
And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay. Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
God reminds us that there is culture on earth that we do see, and a Kingdom in His presence that we do not yet see. Cultures upon the earth are marked by addiction, pride, anxiety, and greed. All cultures have an expiration date when they will come to an end. The Kingdom of King Jesus, however, will never come to an end. As we await the coming of our King and His Kingdom, opening God’s Word to get a vision of the great victory that God’s people will share in forever gives us hope to continue trusting the Lord and living for His Kingdom because Team Jesus wins in the end!
In Habakkuk 2:6–20, we are told of five woes that are promised for those who rebel against King Jesus and His Kingdom. We are told that the cultures of the earth are marked by the gathering of riches through stealing, obtaining safety by neglecting and abusing others, expanding empires through violence and crime, enjoying sexuality through getting people drunk and abusing them, and living to worship things that are made (e.g., possessions, prosperity, pleasure) rather than the Maker of all things.
One day, King Jesus is returning to establish His Kingdom. To help us grow in faith until we see Him, He taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” in Matthew 6:9–10 (ESV). We who are citizens of Jesus’ Kingdom should remain loyal to our King while we are advancing through enemy territory in culture amidst a great war for souls, including our own. Until that day comes, Habakkuk 2:20 (ESV) tells us that “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.” Practically speaking, until Jesus leaves His heavenly home and returns, there is not much for us to say as He will ultimately get the last word.
What part of culture do you find most frustrating? What part of culture do you find most tempting?
If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil? Part 2: A Study in Habakkuk
The Bible is the most honest book ever written. Page after page are real stories about real people with real struggles and a real God who alone can really help. One of the most real books of the Bible is Habakkuk. In it, we read the tear-soaked prayers of a man who is on the brink of losing hope for his own life and for the world in which he lives. Here are his own words as he meets with God in Habakkuk 1:12–17 (ESV):
Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
When life collapses around you and you find yourself stressed and depressed, it is vital that you do three things, learning from Habakkuk’s examples.
One: you must accept reality. Denying reality, ignoring reality, or pretending that reality is not real does not help, because reality exists whether or not we agree with it. When speaking of who and what he was up against, Habakkuk uses the following brutally honest words: evil, wrong, traitors, wicked, rejoices and is glad (over injustice), luxury, rich, and mercilessly killing.
Two: you must remind yourself of God’s character. When life’s problems are big and bad, we have to remember that our God is bigger and better. Habakkuk reminds himself that God is “everlasting,” “Lord,” “my God,” and the “Holy One” who has “purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.” God knows the future since He has “ordained” it; He is our Judge who brings “judgment,” and our Creator (“You make mankind”).
Three: you must meet with God. Habakkuk 2:1 (ESV) says, “I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.” When trouble is present, it is more important than ever to seek God’s presence. This is what Habakkuk does. Like him, we need to get away from our problems to get focused silence and solitude as we meet with God. This happens through opening our Bibles, praying, and seeking the mind of God. In order to listen to God, we must be quiet and be patient as we await His instruction and direction.
Four: you must get above your circumstances. By getting above, Habakkuk literally changed his vantage point. Spiritually speaking, when we meet with God, we should be seeking to do the same.
Perhaps a classic preaching analogy will help us understand this point better. When a weaver uses a loom, the work looks very different from under the loom as compared to above the loom. When looking up from under the loom, one only sees knots and haphazard bits of yarn that seem out of place, random, and disorganized. Yet, when looking down upon the loom from the top, the picture is entirely different. From above, we can see that the weaver had a beautiful picture in mind, meticulously labored to bring to pass. So it is with God. As we look up, we do not see what He is doing. By getting spiritually above the loom of life through prayer, Scripture, and time with the Spirit, we can begin to see that God is good and working out all things for the good of those who love Him as Romans 8:28 promises.
Is there anything pressing in your life right now that would benefit from an extended time away? When can you schedule a meeting with God to work it through together?
If God Is Good, Why Is There Evil? Part 1: A Study in Habakkuk
At various points in life, we inevitably arrive at seasons where we have a God-sized problem. Something (or someone) is too big for us to bear, and the situation is out of our hands. When that time comes, we have two options. One: we can get frustrated with God as if He were the problem and not the solution. Two: we can bring our frustrations to God, trusting by faith that He is the solution.
Surveying all of the evil, injustice, and suffering in the world, a man named Habakkuk brought this question to God: “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” (Habakkuk 1:13 ESV).
In more philosophical terms, Habakkuk is asking a question that today is commonly referred to as “the problem of evil,” or “theodicy.” Here’s the question: If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, why is there suffering and evil?
This is one of the most practical, painful, and problematic questions that every generation asks about God. This is the same question that Habakkuk brought to God for an answer. If this were a multiple-choice test, here are the possible answers:
There is no God.
Atheism wrongly concludes that there is evil and suffering because there is no God to stop it.
God is not all-powerful.
Finite Godism wrongly concludes that God is impotent and lacking the power to overcome evil and suffering.
God is not all-knowing.
Evolutionary Godism, also referred to as Open Theism, wrongly concludes that God does not know the future but is experiencing life as it comes, doing His best to learn, grow, and respond to His experiences much like we do.
God is not all-good.
Pantheism and Panentheism, found in many Eastern religions, wrongly conclude that God is both good and evil and that both darkness and light come from and are expressions of God’s character.
There is no suffering and evil.
Subjectivism and Pluralism wrongly conclude that evil and the experience of suffering are not absolute but rather relative and therefore not always wrong or negative.
God is not done yet, so live by faith, not sight.
Biblical Christianity rightly concludes that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good. Therefore, suffering and evil are not the way that God is, the way that God made the world, or the way that the world will be when Jesus returns and unveils His Kingdom. Until then, God reminds us in Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV) that “the righteous shall live by his faith.”
Which of these options have you chosen in your life? Which will you choose for your future?
Learning to Lament on That Day Part 5: A Study in Habakkuk
In the Western world, we simply stink at grieving, mourning, and losing. We celebrate our wins publicly and grieve our losses privately. No one ever makes a blockbuster movie about the athlete who lost and never recovered or the investor who lost everything and never got it back or the broken heart that never quite mended. Nope. Every story has to have a happy ending, which is a cultural way of lying.
In our own lives, we even use social media to create a fictitious version of our own life that omits all of our faults, flaws, and failures as if we’d already moved to heaven. When’s the last time you got really honest with anyone about how you’re doing, either in person or online. Imagine your social media status being, “Today, I put on a few pounds, am very gassy, got dumped by the person I was dating, cannot pay my bills, found a new zit, and my mom forgot it’s my birthday.”
#lamenting just ain’t trending.
Having faith in God gets us through tough times, but there’s another piece that will allow us to heal up once the storm passes. Lamenting is big in the Bible. In the book of Psalms, the major category of songs are laments. People broken by life and crying out to God grieve and mourn as they move toward healing. Even David the tough guy who could kill soldiers and take down lions knew how to cry a good cry when appropriate. The book of Habakkuk is largely the lament of one man bringing his brokenness to God for healing. You can read his little book in 10–15 minutes and feed your soul for 10–15 years. Here are seven things that help us learn to lament:
Seven Steps to Learning to Lament
When I lament, I allow myself to feel.
When we are hurting, we often numb ourselves to turn off the pain we feel. When we go numb we harm our relationship with God and others as we become emotionally dead. Sometimes this includes self-medicating with your pleasure of choice (drugs, alcohol, food, sex, shopping, entertainment, etc.). Lamenting instead allows us to actually feel all that we are experiencing so that we grieve the losses and experience the loving presence of God and those who love us.
When I lament, I process pain.
By working through hurt, grief, loss, and anger, we get through our healing process. This allows us to not get stuck in the pit of despair, but rather sit in that pit for a while until we are ready to crawl out and move on with life in hope.
When I lament, I grieve my involvement and shed my victim mindset.
When we are hurting, it can be difficult to see any fault or responsibility we have for our suffering. The unfair boss fired us, but we did show up late a lot and not do a great job? The unloving person left our dating relationship, but did we give them some fair reasons to do so? As we lament, we are open to any learning opportunities we have to admit our past failures so as to not drag them into our future.
When I lament, I don’t lash out in vengeance at others.
Hurt people can be counterpunchers by nature. They return hurt for hurt, hatred for hatred, and decibel for decibel. By lamenting, the pressure valve in our soul is turned to release enough pressure that we can return to our saner selves and not hurt everyone around us just because we are hurting.
When I lament, I empathize with others who are hurting.
When we are hurting, it is easy to make ourselves the center of our universe. We want everyone to stop what they are doing, run to our rescue, and make us their priority. We can easily forget that they likely have their own grief and struggles to deal with. Lamenting our trouble allows us to heal up a bit thereby enabling us to have compassion for others who are hurting as well. This is why the greatest ministry comes from the deepest pain.
When I lament, I feel hope for the future.
Lamenting allows a heart funeral for the past. This allows us to have a sense of closure so we eventually get up and move forward to the future that God has for us, with hope that the worst day will not be every day.
When I lament, I escape anger and depression.
Statistically, women and men manifest their angst differently. Women are more likely to express symptoms commonly known as depression – weepiness, sadness, and withdrawal. Men, on the other hand, generally don’t like feeling emotional or vulnerable, so they turn on their anger to feel strong and able to rise up and go to war rather than sit down to weep. In fact, many angry men may actually be depressed; they languish because do not know how to lament.
In His First Coming, the Lord Jesus was a lot like Habakkuk. Isaiah promised He would be a “man of sorrows” and “familiar with grief.” Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem and the death of His buddy Lazarus were, in fact, perfect lamenting. The same is true of Jesus’ bleeding, weeping, and surrendering on the cross as that was lamenting that changed the world. The God that Habakkuk cried out to is the same Jesus of whom Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) thankfully says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.”
Today, everyone who, like Habakkuk, asks, “How long?” is ultimately longing for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, whether they know it or not. When we see Him again, faith will become sight and lamenting will become rejoicing just as He said in John 16:20 (ESV): “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
What thing(s) are you most frustrated, exhausted, or stressed about right now? Have you brought those things, with emotional vulnerability and real honesty, to God to lament?