When God is Silent

Have you ever had a feeling that God seems not to listen nor respond to your prayers? Have you thought and felt that God has been silent about your pains and life's struggles? 

When we persistently pray and our prayers seems to be unanswered, it's a natural inclination for us to feel that God is silent. When God is silent, we are upset, we are confused. 

Even David who has been regarded as the "Man after God's Own Heart" expressed his feelings about God's silence in his prayer found in Psalm 13:1-3 that says, "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?How long must I take counsel in my soul    and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,"

In his prayer, he asked God how long will He hide His face from Him; how long will he suffer from his enemies; and for how long will he ever feel the pain that he had been bearing in his heart all day. At some point, I have identified myself with David. I felt that way too. I asked God such questions whenever I feel that He's being silent towards me. Then I realized something. Often times, I lose sight of the omnipresent nature of God. I lose sight of the fact that there is no millisecond that He is not involved in my afflictions. He's being silent, but it doesn't mean that He does not care. Then it led me to some points to ponder whenever God is being silent. 

First, when God is silent, there's always a reason for it. God has a plan to prosper us and not to harm us, a plan to give us hope. When He's silent, He wants to teach us something or to reveal something on how we are going to live our lives. 

Second, one of the reasons for God's silence is the SIN in our lives. God is holy and divine and we are not. But because of His immense love for us, we were made righteous through the blood of Christ so that we may have a reunion with Him. But one thing that sets us apart from God is our sins---the habitual and unconfessed sins that hinder us to listen to the voice of God. 

Third, we ought to feel God's silence because we drown ourselves too much on the noise of the world. We are often deaf when it comes to the Voice of Truth because we are so caught up by the worldly noise around us. God might be speaking to us but because we are so focused on other things, we fail to take heed of what matters the most, and that is the voice of God. Ambition, luxury, leisure, and worldly pleasures are the ear plugs that block us from hearing the divine Words of the Lord. 

Given those three points about God's silence, here's the list of NOT to do when God is silent:

• Don't withdraw or walk away from following God. In David's prayer in Psalm 13:1-3, he went on saying, "But I have trusted in your steadfast love;    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation." (v.5). God's silence must not keep us away from Him, but rather, it should keep us closer with God. 
• Don't harbor doubt or offense and build a wall of resentment and resistance. 
• Don't embrace fear or anxiety. God has thousands of wonderful promises in stored for all of us. And His promises are all true! In Joshua 1:9 it says, "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” God may be silent at times, but it doesn't mean that He is not with us through it all. He is always on our side, so never embrace fear nor anxiety for God is love, and perfect love drives out fear. Be in the loving cradle arms of God even in the midst of His silence. 
• Don't try to help God and second guess Him by taking things into your own hands. Let God be God. His ways are unfathomable, His ways and His thoughts will never be the same as ours. Do not try to take things into your own hands because of your impatience towards His silence. Because it won't solve your predicaments, they will only get worse sooner or later. 

Though there are lists of things that we should not do when God is silent, I cannot give you the list on what to do when God is silent. Because there is no formula of what to do when God is silent. 

Silence is the door to God. He wants you to draw to closer to Him. Consequently, many of us think of God's silence as apathy.

 In the story of the death of Lazarus, Mary (sister of Lazarus) went to Jesus saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But God replied, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Upon knowing what happened to Lazarus, Jesus decided to stay for two days more where He was before. Then after two days, He urged His disciples to go to Judea with Him for He will be awakening a friend from a deep slumber. The disciples took literally what Jesus meant but later on He enlightened them about what He'll do to Lazarus. But when they came to Judea, Martha (also a sister of Lazarus), put the blame on Jesus for the death of her brother. In verse 21 it says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" Though she expressed her resentment to God about her brother's death, with faith, she went on saying, "But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."

 Surprisingly, in verses 42-45 Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  Healing the sick would be a great deed of Jesus for his beloved Lazarus, but raising Him from the dead was beyond majestic! God's silence and set back brought forth one the greatest miracles! The Bible tells it all. 

When you cannot hear God, He has entrusted you that you will bring closer to Him. When He is silent, you can say that God trusts you. God's silence is an indication of His intimacy with us. God's silence is a gift; and God is a God who never changes--not now, not today, not even in the days to come. Though at times He is silent, it doesn't make Him any less of a God. 

There is no formula to move God to speak because He is the God who is in control of everything and we can never out win Him, we can never manipulate Him. What we can do is to be still and know that God is God, and we are not. 

Let us practice solitude in times of God's silence. As the psalmist David wrote in Psalm 131, it says " O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high;I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me." 

Like David, let us calmly trust the Lord with a childlike faith. A faith that is characterized by humble dependency, calm, contentment, confident, trust, and unfailing hope-- even when God is silent.