What to Do When God Is Silent

What to Do When God Is Silent

When God is silent
Too often we worry about if we have done something wrong when God feels distant. The silence of God is part of salvation life. Sometimes it lasts few days or weeks, sometimes the silent period lasts months or even years. But it doesn’t mean that we would be abandoned. It doesn’t mean that we would be bad Christians. 

If God chooses to be silent there is nothing we can do to prevent it. The silence of God is not exceptional. Take, for example, the 430-year experience of the absence of God preceding the Exodus!  Eugene H. Peterson says this silence of God is often reproduced in our lives but we don’t know what to make of it. How true! The silence of God is okay. It’s not a judgment.

Even this sense of the absence of God does not make God cold, distant or passive. God does care for us even if he chooses to be withdrawn for certain period of our lives. Those times may seem like life in a desert but for everything there is a purpose. There is beauty in a desert, too. 

We are supposed to believe without seeing. We are supposed to base our faith on God and his promises not on our feelings. C.S. Lewis reminds us “Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” Feelings are gifts from God but the sense of the absence of God doesn’t prove that God would not be there for us. Warren Wiersbe writes “When it seems as if God is far away, remind yourself that He is near. Nearness is not a matter of geography. God is everywhere. Nearness is likeness. The more we become like the Lord, the nearer He is to us.”

So let’s seek God’s presence, let’s seek to hear God’s voice. Let’s seek to become like Jesus.
But let’s not be discouraged if sometimes God seems silent or distant.

God is always there, only a breath a way.
God is always there, lovingly in action for our behalf.
God is always there, preparing for something great!

Just think how after the 430-year period of silence God started talking to Moses and what happened next!

There is a right time to be silent,
there is a right time to talk.
There is a right time for everything.

Thanks be to God!

 

Gracious God,
Thank you that you are everywhere.
Thank you that you are near us even when we don’t feel it.
Remind us of your amazing love when you’re silent.
Help us not to condemn ourselves or others when you’re silent.
Help us to base our faith on you and not on our feelings.
Help us to wait when it’s time to wait.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: How have you dealt with the silence of God in your life?

Be blessed, fellow pilgrim!
If you’re experiencing the silence of God in your life right now:
rest in God’s grace and know that this, too, will pass.
If you can hear God’s voice in your life right now:
make sure you take time to listen!

Photo courtesy of Tonya Christner

6 thoughts on “What to Do When God Is Silent

  1. Dear Anonymous,
    You are very welcome. Thank you for your feedback! Abundant blessings to you!

  2. For me I seek His face the more so because I have to check to make sure I did not disconnect myself, then their are times when He is still I have to just be still as well and wait.

    Great post.

  3. When I was a young apprentice I was nervous, wondering if my job performance was enough to keep me employed.
    . I asked my boss at that time.
    He told me I’d hear from him if there was a problem and if I didn’t hear from him, it’ was because I was doing fine. He was a good boss.
    He would nod at me once in a while after that, likely as a concession to my insecurity
    Is this comment OK? Is it even on topic? Maybe silence would have been better? 🙂

    1. It’s a wonderful comment, Laurie, and such a powerful analogy too. I don’t think silence is good when it comes to commenting. The more conversation we can have the better. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. May God continue to bless you and keep you!

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