“What if drawing closer to God, developing genuine intimacy with him, requires you to bear something that feels unbearable? To hear him through an ominous utterance, to trust him in the moment of doom, to embrace his strength when you’re weak with a burden? What if it takes real pain to experience deep and abiding hope?” p. 54 Craig Groeschel, Hope in the Dark
Life is not fair. It never will be. Fortunately it’s not. If I find myself wanting things to be “fair”, what I truly mean is that I want them to go my way. When you truly examine the concept of fairness, I don’t want fairness…I want God’s very best for me…and that means not getting what I want all the time. I truly don’t know what’s best for me, but I rest assured that my Savior who created me with a distinct purpose and plan for my life has the master plan all put together. The combination of the mountaintops and valleys are part of that plan.
Hope in the Dark: Believing God is Good When Life is Not by Craig Groeschel is an excellent resource for anyone who needs encouragement or has the unique privilege of offering encouragement to someone else in need. Groeschel is very transparent with some of his own struggles as he has walked through difficult situations with family and friends. This book points straight to the hope that we have in Jesus and uses several passages of Scripture throughout…in fact the story of Habbakuk is the backbone of this book.
I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…
- Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” —Mark 9:21–24 p.17
- Honest questions, sincere doubts, and deep hurts can draw you closer to God than you’ve ever been before. P.21
- Faith’s not a math problem or a language problem or even a philosophy problem; it’s a matter of the heart. P.22
- Pain in the moment, and hope for the future. But sometimes the pain seems to yell, while hope only whispers. P.23
- Habakkuk means both to wrestle and to embrace. P.23
- Human beings do not readily admit desperation. When they do, the kingdom of heaven draws near. —Philip Yancey p.27
- Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, LORD, how long? . . . I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. —Psalm 6:2–3, 6–7 p.33
- How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. —Habakkuk 1:2–4 p.39
- But as much as we think we know, the reality is this: we’re not God, and we don’t know best. P.46
- Like a master storyteller, he is crafting an epic in which he allows each of us to play a significant role. There are no minor characters or bit players in God’s story. We’re all important. He’ll never abandon us, and he’s working everything for our good. P.46
- Psalm 56:8: “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record?” p. 47
- Open your hurting heart to him, and he will speak. Because even though God is almighty and all-powerful and rules over his kingdom, he also cares deeply about you. He loves you, and he will never abandon you. In fact, it’s usually at your deepest time of need that he meets you, comforts you, and lifts you into a place where healing can finally begin. But only if you’re willing to listen. P. 48
- Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. —Elisabeth Elliot p.49
- What if drawing closer to God, developing genuine intimacy with him, requires you to bear something that feels unbearable? To hear him through an ominous utterance, to trust him in the moment of doom, to embrace his strength when you’re weak with a burden? What if it takes real pain to experience deep and abiding hope? P. 54
- When words don’t work, remember that presence does. Love does. An embrace does. P. 61
- Author and scholar C. S. Lewis explains it this way: “I’m not sure God wants us to be happy. I think he wants us to love, and be loved. But we are like children, thinking our toys will make us happy and the whole world is our nursery. Something must drive us out of that nursery and into the lives of others, and that something is suffering.” P. 62
- LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment; you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? —Habakkuk 1:12–13 p. 63
- “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2–4). P. 65
- “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matt. 7:7–8). So if you have questions, ask away. Just be prepared when God answers. P.66
- Listen to your life. All moments are key moments. —Frederick Buechner p69
- When was the last time you stopped everything and just sat completely still, listening for God’s voice? P72
- “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). P80
- Paul got it. He wrote, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9–10). Paul didn’t just hear God’s response; he listened. And that subtle difference changed the very fabric of who Paul was.
- If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial, be strengthened. —George Mueller p.83
- I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. I’ll be wrestling with something I don’t understand and praying about it. “God, are you there? What’s going on? What do you want me to do in this situation? What are you up to?” Then I often feel like God shows me something, provides direction, or speaks to my heart. I’ve learned to write it down, because inevitably, a few days later, I’ll be thinking about it again, and I might talk myself out of it. “Well, I don’t know. Maybe it was that late-night snack. Just some divinely inspired indigestion.” So I begin to doubt what I knew with certainty only a couple of days ago. My awareness of God’s message to me seems to vanish unless I write it down. When I record it, though, it becomes a spiritual anchor that tethers me to God and to the consistency of his promises. “Yes, I believe that God has spoken.” And better than that, I have a reference point that I can return to. P. 85
- Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work. —Peter Marshall p.93
- “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17). P.97
- Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. —Martin Luther King Jr. p.99
- “These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!” (Hab. 2:3 TLB). It’s comforting to know that God’s timing is perfect. I love the way C. S. Lewis put it: “I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless he sees that it’s good for him to wait.” We can trust God to do what’s best for us at the right time. P.99
- Oswald Chambers said, “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” P.103
- You’ll find these words in Habakkuk 2:20, where the prophet, after acknowledging that he still doesn’t like what’s going on, says, “But the LORD is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him” (NLT, emphasis mine). P.108
- EVEN THOUGH I’M UPSET, ANGRY, CONFUSED, FRUSTRATED, DISappointed, and impatient, I will remember who God is. The Lord is still in charge. And he is good. He is righteous. He is true. He is faithful. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever present. The world may seem upside down, but the Lord is still there. He is sovereign, and he has a plan—a much bigger plan than I can see right now. I have to respect that he is God and I am not. His timing is not my timing. His ways are higher than I’ll ever understand. He is supreme in all wisdom, and he knows the end from the beginning. I’m just a person, his creation. He has everything under control. P.108
- Habakkuk prays, “LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2). P.119
- Coming out of the dip and using our crisis of belief as a catalyst to reaching a higher, more intimate plateau with God requires trust. We have to make choices about what we believe is true, exercise our willpower to act on those beliefs, and yet remain honest about the way things appear to us and how we feel. If we allow any of those parts to override the others, then we’ll usually end up sliding back down into the valley again. P.134
- A living hope enables us to have both sorrow and joy. Our living hope is an inheritance achieved for us by Christ. —Tim Keller p.139
- To wrestle and to embrace. Both at the same time. That’s how we find our way to hope. P.143
- I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. —C. S. Lewis p.145
- “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Hab. 3:17–18). P.151
- Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory. —William Barclay, Scottish minister p.153
- When hard things happen, and the best you can manage is to want to believe, that’s enough. Don’t stop wanting to believe. Allow that spark of hope to grow by trusting that God is right there beside you. Like the father of the boy who was possessed, pray and ask God to help you overcome your unbelief. Like Habakkuk, ask your questions and then be prepared to listen to God’s response. P.156
- You may have noticed that the book of Habakkuk has three short chapters. In the first, Habakkuk is doubting. In the second, he’s waiting. In the third, he’s embracing the goodness of God. P.157
- You can have hope in the dark. Because as you grow to know God, he will reveal even more of his love, his faithfulness, his grace. And over time you will realize, believe, and embrace that even when life is difficult, God is still good. P.158