Hearing the Silence of God
Posted: 3/19/2019
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)
One thing I have learned is God does not do things the way I would. Every time I expect God to act “my way,” I become disappointed with Him. Most often, it is when I pray expecting God to respond a certain way that I get no answer. All I hear is silence.
When it comes to wondering where God is, we are in good company. In biblical days, the disciples cried out to God in the upper room in the hours after the crucifixion of their Leader—but there was only silence. When Mary and Martha mourned the death of their beloved brother and desperately needed Jesus . . . no response. When Joseph sat at the bottom of a pit having been put there by his brothers to die . . . where was God? Even when Jesus prayed three times for deliverance and cried out to God at Calvary, “Why have you forsaken me?” . . . nothing.
Looking back at each of these examples, we see that God was very much present and and very much responding. In fact, He was preparing some of His greatest miracles ever.
God’s plan is not always clear in this life, at the hour when we pray. In the story of Job, no one experienced the silence of God more, yet God finally made it clear that He owes no explanation. We see dimly through a glass now, but one day we will see everything clearly. Regardless of how God responds, He may not give His children what they want, but He will give us what we need.
Waiting is a way of hearing the silence of God—a way of hearing what God is trying to teach us. As we depend more on Him, we begin to purge ourselves of what we want and start to focus on what God wants. And it’s often in the very deliberate act of not rescuing us or changing our circumstance that God performs an even greater miracle and transforms us from the inside out.
When we think God is being silent, the reality is that we may lack ears to hear at the moment. What we perceive as silence today may become loud and clear in the future.
Heavenly Father, I want to be content with Your ways. When I think You are being silent, help me remember that you are always working in my life. Amen
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