When God Seems Silent

God answers prayers. But sometimes, God is silent.

We’ve all been there or will be. We may earnestly see God, but, in return, we may only sense His silence. This silence can be difficult, and frustrating, especially when we think we need an answer “right now!”

In the Book of Job, it talks about an account of a man who was well acquainted with God’s silence. In Job’s pain and suffering, he cried out to God. He asked for answers and kept asking.

I can relate to Job’s circumstances because I cried out to God so many times growing up, but all I got was silence. The didifference was that I thought God hated me. And it sent me down a path of despair and depression. I didn’t know God was making me stronger. I thought He was trying to kill me. Thankfully I’ve learned a few things since then.

The first 37 chapter of Job’s account, he cried for God’s help and relief and was met only by God’s deafening silence.

As believers, we are not always going to hear God’s voice, but from Job, we can learn a few things to do when God seems silent.

1. Examine Your Life

Begin by asking yourself, if you have any unconfessed sin in your life. Make sure nothing is blocking you from being able to hear God’s voice.

Psalm 66:18 saysm

“If I cherish sin in my heart. The Lord wouldn’t have listened.”

Ask yourself if there is anything or anyone you love more than God.

As God brings things to mind, ask for forgiveness.

There is no shame in repentance. This is an act of faith and pleases God which restores our fellowship with Him.

2. Accept God’s Authority

Recognize that God can be silent. There is no obligation for God to answer us, inform us or let us know anything.

.A.W. Tozer said, ‘The knowledge of the Holy,” because no one and no thing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him. He is able to do ad He pleases always, everywhere, forever.”

Like us, Job faced the choice of acknowledging or rejecting the authority of God. In response to his suffering and loss, Job’s wife suggested he curse God and die.

Instead of following her advice, Job chose to let God be God. Job said in verse 2:10,

“Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”

Accepting God’s authority also means actively trusting God, realizing He is in control and can be trusted.

In Job 13:15 Job says,

“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” (ESV).

Nothing in Job’s life, or ours, happens apart from God’s knowledge and plan. As we learn at the beginning of Job, God was fully aware of all the things that were about to happen to Job. In fact, He gave satan permission to do these things in Job‘s life. At no point does God release His control.

3. Listen To What God Is saying

Although God may seem silent regarding a specific request, remember that He is in a constant state of communication with us.

Even though I coped an attitude with God and went and did some idiotic things. If I would have left my mind and heart open, maybe my life would have gone a little differently. It is possible that I would have heard what God was saying.

The Bible is full of specific answers from God about what is right or wrong, as well as information about God’s intention for us as His children.

Don’t forget to dig into God’s Word, it is Hid communication to us. We can find out what He had to say about the problems we face or the questions we need answered.

Remember to ask God to speak to you through the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you. Often scripture can have new significance in light of the current problems you are facing.

4. Recognize That Silence Can Be Intimate

Silence can be a sign of God’s trust in you.

The Book of John tells of an account about Jesus’s friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. When Jesus found out Lazarus was sick, rather than rush to Lazarus’s house to heal him, he stayed where he was for two more days, and before Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus died (John 11:6).

To Lazarus’s sisters, Mary and Martha, Jesus’s silence could have been interpreted as neglect -that Jesus did not care about or want to help them.

This mirrors many of the emotions we feel when God does not immediately answer our cries for help.

In Jesus’s silence we as well as Mary and Martha, are drawn into a new closeness to God and understanding of His power.

It wasn’t until God saved my life through a horrible situation I got myself into that I realized there was something to God’s power and that He had been silent for years, but He was protecting me from myself all along.

When we can’t hear God, we sometimes find that He trusts us all along in the most intimate way possible.

I imagine He was saying to me all along “Girl don’t go that way it will lead you to a dangerous situation, but I will protect you no matter what, while you are learning.”

For Job, God’s silence was a result of the depth of their relationship.

What I’ve learned from all the situations and mistakes I’ve made is to never stop talking to God.

God is in control and has been all along. He heard Job’s cries for help. He hears us too. He just waits for the perfect time to speak.