Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; 3:[3b-6], 17-19 , Advent I: Faith as a Way of Life

Sunday, November 29, 2026
12:00 AM 11:59 PM 00:00 23:59

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Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today

“Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.”

— Habakkuk 3:17-19

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NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, November 29, 2026

by Pr. Mattheis Lorimor, Clergy Stuff

Main Idea: In Advent, we can take our brokenness and difficult questions to God.

At its core, Advent is a fierce, eschatological season. We tend to forget that amid all the cheerful holiday movies and jolly, red-suited gift givers in our modern world, but the early and medieval church were particularly aware of it. They understood Advent as a time when believers don’t just look back and rejoice at the Savior’s first coming but look forward in anticipation to the Savior’s second coming that will fix the brokenness we see now. Perhaps it’s only right then to begin Advent with the prophet Habakkuk.

Frustrated and overwhelmed by the brokenness of the world around him, in chapter 1:2-4 Habakkuk demands to know how God can tolerate so much violence and injustice. Habakkuk digs in his heels and says he will stand at his watch-post (2:1) until God answers. Then, in the second chapter, God does. God encourages Habakkuk that the day of the Lord will come and to hold fast in the ugliness that is. The wicked may seem to triumph for a time, but “the righteous live by their faithfulness.” And the amazing thing is that Habakkuk does. As broken as Habakkuk’s world is, the final chapter looks forward with hopeful anticipation to that time when the earth shakes with God’s glory and praises while the book ends with Habakkuk’s faithful affirmation that “God, the Lord, is my strength.” (3:19).

Perhaps that is how we too should approach this season of Advent. Christmas isn’t just a time when we can rejoice and be merry, but when we can take all the brokenness and difficult questions of our present world to God. Because, as Habakkuk reminds us, faith is a way of life that trusts that tomorrow belongs to God. Somehow the Lord will come again, and the earth will shake in the most miraculous way as all its brokenness is set right. And until then, we will live by our fierce Advent faith.