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You asked

how do other biblical figures deal with persistent struggles or unanswered prayers?

The passage, plainly, with room to sit with it.

Habakkuk 1:2-4

Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you 'Violence!' and you will not save. Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.

The prophet Habakkuk, likely in the late 7th century BCE in Judah, cries out to God about the rampant injustice and violence he sees in his society. He is deeply troubled by God's apparent silence and inaction in the face of widespread corruption and oppression.

What does it feel like to voice deep frustration and questions to God without an immediate answer?

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Read alongside it

  • Psalm 13:1-2

    A psalmist expresses similar feelings of being forgotten and asks 'how long?'

  • Job 23:3-5

    Job longs to present his case directly to God amidst his suffering.

  • Romans 8:26-27

    Paul speaks of the Spirit interceding for us with groans too deep for words.

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