I was reading the book of Habakkuk and noticed how it was written. It is very much a prayer, a conversation between God and Habakkuk. And it is a good one! Habakkuk asks God questions and God answers them.
Habakkuk lived at a time where God’s people were sinning so much that God used another ungodly nation, Babylon, to punish them. Habakkuk cries out in frustration at all the violence and unrighteousness that is happening around him, and God tells him what He is going to do about it. Habakkuk points out the idolatry of the nation that God is sending to punish His people, and God tells him that eventually Babylon will get what it deserves, too.
So after all that, Habakkuk writes a prayer in the form of a song, praising God for His righteousness, vastness, and power! He points out and praises the justice of God as well as His mercy. Habakkuk concludes by acknowledging that God will set things right. He then says that even though everything else around him fails, he will still rejoice in the God of his salvation, the God who delivers him, the God who is his strength. Even though everything around him might fall apart, God is still God, He is still good, and He will always be there to hold him up.
I want to pray like that and have that kind of attitude. Even if everything around me is doom and gloom, failure and injustice, I will praise God. I know that God will eventually set things right, and He’ll be there with me in the middle of the bad and the good.