For those of you who are just joining this series on the seasons of God’s silence, I want you to know I treasure your emails and comments. Your emails remind me there’s a reason this is one of the topics I speak on often. It’s because we’ve all been baffled by those seasons of silence when our prayers seem to hit the ceiling and God feels so far away.
But God never allows us to experience His silence by mistake.
In Part 1, we discovered that sometimes God seems silent because our lives are just so loud. We allow ourselves to become so busy that our lives drown out the still small voice of God and then we wonder where He is.
In Part 2, we learned that sometimes God is allowing us to go through a season of silence (or maybe even causing us to walk through a season of silence) because our faith and our character is begin tested.
And today, in Part 3, we are going to peel back 2 more layers to some of the reason for those seasons of silence as we find that…
Sometimes God chooses to be silent right before He reveals Himself to us in a new and profound way.
From Malachi to Matthew there are 400 years of silence. They are known as the SILENT YEARS.
But oh ladies…when HE broke the silence…His voice was loud and clear…THE MESSIAH HAD COME TO THE EARTH to be the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD and NOTHING WOULD EVER BE THE SAME!
In John 11, we get a glimpse of how God is sometimes silent before He is getting ready to reveal Himself.
You see, in the town of Bethany, a man named Lazarus was dying. He as a friend of Jesus’. Lazurus had 2 sisters. Mary and Martha…and they sent messengers to Jesus and said, “Master, the one you love so much is sick.” (Jn 11:2)
No I’m sure they were expecting Jesus to hurry to heal Lazurus…after all they knew He LOVED Lazurus. But the Bible goes on to say, So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” (Jn 11:6)
Jesus didn’t start heading for Bethany for 2 days and by the time He arrived on the scenes, 4 days had passed. They were looking for Jesus to show up and heal their brother.
Now you can imagine how they must have felt. Jesus had healed others. They were well aware of what Jesus could do. But why wouldn’t He heal their brother? Didn’t Jesus care? Why didn’t He do something? Didn’t He LOVE Lazarus?
OSWALD CHAMBERS once said that many times, “His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into a marvelous understanding of Himself.”
Had they not experienced the Lord’s silence for 4 days, they would have never experienced the miraculous hand of God.
Sometimes, God is silent right before He reveals Himself in ways that would not be possible if He had shown up earlier.
They wanted Jesus to show up and be the Great Physician…but Jesus wanted to reveal Himself to them as the Resurrection and the Life.
Sometimes God is silent right before He reveals Himself in ways we would have never been able to see before. But rest assured… the waiting is worth it, sweet sister and it is for your good!
FINALLY…
The reality is that sometimes God is silent and we have NO IDEA WHY.
That’s what happened to Job.
He was just going about his business, being a righteous man, loving the Lord praying for his kids…when all of a sudden his world caved in on him. In one day, he lost his camels, his sheep, his donkeys, his oxen and his kids…ALL OF THEM. And then Job’s friends came around wondering what kind of secret sin Job had going on because things like that NEVER happen to someone who is living for the Lord. Right?
But Job wasn’t going through all of that because he was unrighteous…in fact, the opposite is true…it was because of his righteousness that he was suffering such tragedy.
As he sat is dust and ashes with boils covering his body he began crying out to God, wondering where He was. Listen to his heart’s cry…
Job 9:16-18, “And even if I summoned him and he responded, I’m not sure he would listen to me. 17 For he attacks me with a storm and repeatedly wounds me without cause. He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me instead with bitter sorrows.?”
Job 23:3-4, “If only I knew where to find God, I would go to his court. 4 I would lay out my case and present my arguments.”
Job 23:8-10, “I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him. 9 I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I look to the south, but he is concealed. 10 “But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.”
Job 30:20, “I cry to You, O God, but you don’t answer. I stand before You, but You don’t even look.”
Job was experiencing a serious season of silence from God and he was having a really hard time dealing with it. I think we would too! Job started blaming God for what he was going through…feeling like God was far from Him…crying out to God, but God was silent.
Did God even see him? Did God care?
But in all of Job’s questioning, crying and complaining, the Bible say, he maintained his integrity.
Job 27:3-5, “Job said, ‘As long as I live, while I have my breath from God, my lips will speak no evil, and my tongue will speak no lies…til I die I will not put away my integrity from me.’”
Remember, it was Job who even said, “Though He slay me, yet shall I praise Him.”
Job is the ultimate example of a serious season of silence. He suffered unimaginable loss and unbearable pain…and He cried out to God to show up and intervene, yet God was silent.
He didn’t know why. To Job, it didn’t make sense. He was a righteous man. Why would God allow him to go through such terrible things?!
He kept crying out, but nothing!
Then, suddenly from Job 38-41 we see God breaking the silence with a reminder that God is in heaven and He does what He chooses. Even when we don’t understand.
Job finally dealt with some issues and God restored to Job double what he had lost.
Although Job was never told why he went through all that he did…or why he had to suffer through an excruciating season of silence from God, he went through that trial broken but holding onto his integrity…trusting God to be good even through his circumstances were bad.
Ladies, we don’t always get to know why we go through what we do. We don’t always understand the seasons of silence we experience, but we assured by the Word of God and the character of God that His silence never equals His absence…neither does it equal His inactivity.
You see, you are the apple of His eye, inscribed upon the palm of His hand, He knows the number of hairs on your head and the thoughts of your heart, He will never leave you, He will never forsake you, you are forever His and He is forever your God.
Don’t you dare give up! God’s silence does not mean He is inactive or absent. Keep trusting God even when you He is silent…He is working behind the scenes of your life, making something beautiful out of the broken pieces of your life.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Is your life so busy that you’re drowning out the still small voice of God and then wondering where He is?
Perhaps you feel like this is a testing time for you?
Or maybe you’re in God’s waiting room because He is getting ready to reveal Himself to you in a bigger, more profound way.
Are you going through a season of silence and you aren’t sure why?
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CLICK THIS LINK & CHECK OUT HOW YOU CAN HAVE A CHURCH HOSTED BETTER TOGETHER CONFERENCE
(As we are finalizing the details, we wanted to give you a peak at how you can have a BETTER TOGETHER Conference at your church!)
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