When God stays quiet

Silence

Have you ever had a period in your life when you hear nothing from God? You pray and pray, but nothing comes back to you. God says nothing and no-one offers you anything by way of advice or guidance. You feel as though God has more important things to do today or worse still, He has forgotten you. I know that I have.

Take right now, for example. God seems to be particularly quiet. I have been still so that I may know that He is God (Psalm 46:10) I have lifted my eyes to the hills, whence comes my help (Psalm 121:1) I have been very emotional too – I find my eyes leaking when we are praying, when we had child dedications, when someone gave a testimony. It’s not like me – I mean I do weep from time to time but not like now – at the least little thing.

Thank God for wives !! They say that behind every good man there is a good woman. In my limited experience, women are more spiritually sensitive and more discerning than men. Men are still in the traditional hunter/gatherer roles of yesteryear. Men are the war-farers and defenders of the tribe. Women have evolved their ‘domestic’ role into great pray-ers and spiritual advisors to their men-folk. My wife and I were discussing some of the issues we are going through. We had prayed and prayed but silence seemed to be the most popular answer that either of us had heard. We even discussed the way my emotions were all over the place. She had an answer to that one straight away. “God is refining you. He has you in His fire right now and He is preparing you for this next season.” Then she added, “Perhaps He is preparing us both for the coming season?”

What a wonderful insight. It immediately rang true in my spirit. We have been praying. for what seems like ages, for some clarity in our ministry. Is all this deafening silence upon us because He has us on His refiners bench? We do not know whether or not I should continue my overseas ministry trips. We do not know how we are to minister together although we have several words that say we will do so. We do know that God brought us to this church, but we do not yet know why ???

I am sure you all have similar experiences. Those periods in your life when God seems to stay silent – saying nothing. Is that because we are not listening hard enough, or is He really staying silent? I really do think that, in our case, it is because He is birthing something in us but needs us refined a little bit more first.

Is He doing the same in you, I wonder? If He is, then don’t give up; keep pressing in for your answer. It will come, I promise you. Even better, Gods Word promises you in Jeremiah 29:13-14a “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD”