One of my favorite Bible books is Habakkuk. Not a typical choice, I know, but let me tell you a bit about this little known prophet. Habakkuk wrote sometime before the Babylonian invasion of Judah, and the first two thirds of his book consist of him complaining to God and God answering.

Habakkuk first complains about the moral state of Judah, saying that there is violence and evil everywhere and that the law can do nothing because evil people are perverting justice. God answers that complaint by telling Habakkuk that Judah is going to be invaded and punished by the Chaldeans (who ruled Babylon during the invasion of Judah).  Not satisfied with God’s answer, Habakkuk complains again, questioning God’s use of a nation even more evil than Judah to punish it. The prophet also expresses concern about those who are righteous suffering from the invasion. The cool thing here is that God answers again, reassuring Habakkuk that He will care for the righteous and that the evil Chaldeans will eventually face their own comeuppance. The book then ends with an extended passage of praise.

So the reason I love this book and character is that I am a questioner. I want to know why about . . . well, pretty much everything. Thus, I find God’s response to Habakkuk’s questions deeply reassuring. God doesn’t condemn Habakkuk for his questions; He actually answers. I think that is something that many of us need to recognize.

Too often, Christians put up a facade of confidence or happiness when around other people, especially other Christians. That’s not good, but a greater problem is that we often try to do the same with God. We pretend that we’re not mad at God or that we don’t desperately want to know why things turned out the way they did. But He knows already! God knows when we’re angry, when we’re frustrated, when we’re confused, when that niggling bit of doubt is gnawing its way into our hearts. When we pretend that everything is fine, we are lying to Someone who sees through every lie and sometimes responds to lies rather forcefully. Ever hear of Ananias and Sapphira?

I have found that it is better to bring my concerns, my fears, my doubts, my anger to God directly. Since He already knows, it’s better to acknowledge to Him and to myself what I feel. Then I find, if I do that without forgetting who it is that I’m talking with, that I can walk through that emotion and the questions more quickly and come back to that place of worship and trust.

One caveat: I believe that God is prepared for, even desirous of, our honest questions and emotions about our circumstances and His actions in regard to them. I don’t believe that’s the same as questioning His fundamental character. I believe that Habakkuk, Job, and others receive God’s response because they acknowledge Him even as they present their concerns. We must do the same. But if we can be completely honest with ourselves and God while remembering who He is, we will move to a closeness that we can never experience while pretending that we can hide how we feel from the One who knows us inside and out.