Bible Journaling: The Book of Habakkuk

In Habakkuk, we read a dialogue between a prophet and God. This shows us that God is a good listener, and that He also responds to what we say. We learn from Habakkuk to make space in our prayer-conversations with God for listening. We become eager and expectant to hear Him reply. If we imagine it like texting, we see that God is not someone who never opens our messages and never responds - no! He is ready with answers. We just need to pause, watch, and listen.

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible journaling tip: 

In some books of the Bible there are multiple speakers. Song of Songs, Job, or the book of Habakkuk have more than one person speaking - and it reads sort of like script lines in a play. A helpful journaling tip is to mark the different authors using either symbols or different colors. This just trains the eye to switch to the different speaker. Imagine reading a story book for a child, where you would do different voices for each character coming into the story. How can we read our Bible in a way that makes the text come alive like that?

LOOK UP (information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

The prophet Habakkuk writes down his journey of speaking to God and what he heard in response. This means that this book is similar to reading someone’s Bible journal today. A lot of familiar human problems are evident in this book, and the author asks God’s opinions about a lot of existential issues like: Why do bad things happen? 

Audience:

Habakkuk is unique because usually prophecies are focused on what God has to say to His people. But in Habakkuk, the prophet is speaking on behalf of the people to God. This means that book reads like a conversation between a person and God - how does this differ from how you speak to God? 

History:

This book was written before the Babylonian destruction. Can you find places in the book that connects to other stories in the Bible? A helpful tool that you can create as you Bible Journal is to make your own timeline. Whenever you read, you can add a specific book or story into the timeline - this will help you to the story of God as a whole instead of reading it in disconnected parts.

Genre:

This book is a prophecy, but it is unique because it more like a dialogue. You can highlight the different speakers in different colors or use some other dialogue tools to help you to see this book in that way. Perhaps you and a friend can read it together, each being a different character.

LOOK IN (revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

Habakkuk 3:18-19 NIV

I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.

Inspiration:

In these verses we hear about how rejoicing in God can strengthen us. This almost sounds like in the Psalms when David speaks to his soul “Why are you so downcast within me?”. There is a lot to be said about the spiritual maturity that comes when we become aware of our wellbeing and that the only source of joy that is immovable is God, and not our temporary emotions. How can you check in with the state of your soul more often this week?

LOOK OUT (transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Draw or paint some speech bubbles and make a bullet-point summary of the conversation between God and Habbakuk. You can use different colours and fonts to display some elements of what it said. Maybe you want to challenge yourself and imagine it as writing a text message: See if you can use emojis where relevant to convey more emotion, like you would in a conversation with a friend. 

Bible Journey with HolyJot:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the HolyJot community. 

• What did the prophet do in anticipation of God’s response in verse one? (Habakkuk 2:1)
• What did God tell Habakkuk to do in verse two of this book? (Habakkuk 2:2)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

In Habakkuk 2:1 we read about how the prophet stopped when he had said his part, paused, and how he watched and waited for God to reply. This is a beautiful element of a healthy relationship that some of us cannot even do in our friendships or marriages - never mind our relationship with God. Too often our conversation with God is just a monologue where we rarely pause long enough for Him to get a word in. How would your relationship with God look differently if you paused and waited for Him to actually answer your questions?

Write down a prayer to God, and be sure to make it interesting, like a dialogue - so you want to ask questions and tell Him about what is going on. Then stop. Wait. Go for a walk, or wash the dishes. Listen. Become quiet. Write down how you feel God responds, similar to how Habakkuk did. 

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of Habakkuk. Thank you for being a God who not only listens but also responds. Thank you that you still speak to us today. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!