When God is Silent

I imagine most of us have had a friend who has gone silent on us. We do not hear from them. We try to call them, and we do not get an answer. We wonder what is going on and what we can do to restore our communication, because we value that relationship. That is especially true when this happens in our relationship with God, our best friend.

The psalmist had experienced God being silent. (Psalm 83:1) He cried out to God very sincerely for Him not to be silent. He admonished God not to be deaf to his pleas. He let God know that it was so hard for him when He was quiet. We all need to grapple with this, because it happens to all of us, at times.

God is sovereign. He loves us, and He knows what is best for us. Sometimes, He knows that what we need is a period of silence from Him. Why would He do that? It is not because He is mad at us. It is not that He wants to ignore us or hurt us. He wants to help us grow and get stronger in our faith.

When God is silent, and it seems He is not hearing us, we must keep doing what He told us when He was communicating with us. We must stay faithful, because we know that He spoke to us before, and He is still there. We must trust that He has a good reason to be silent. All the while we listen for Him even more closely, so when He does speak to us we hear Him and obey Him gladly.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 84-86.