There are times in our lives when God seems ever-present, His direction so clear, our connection so deep. He is answering our prayers and our faith life is a fertile valley nourished by the dew in the morning.
And then there are seasons when we feel lonely and struggle to focus. We don’t trust the paths presented to us; every direction seems equal, so every direction feels wrong. We feel deserted, looking for an oasis to rescue us from our arid spiritual landscape. Desperately we cry out to God, and He just seems silent.
Is God there?
It’s amazing how the biblical character Job would explain this. Job would say, “I cry to you for help and You do not answer me, I stand and You only look at me.”
The psalmist David would say, “God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh, my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”
Have you ever experienced a time in your life when God seemed silent?
I’ve been in that place before. It can seem strange, especially when you’re accustomed to communicating with God. I know many people who pray regularly — they wake up in the morning in prayer. At least that’s how my grandmother would teach me. It used to hurt my knees every day. She would say, “Wake up and pray,” and we would pray for hours.
We are taught to pray in the noonday and when we come home at night. Communicating with God is how many of us were raised, taught and trained. And we get used to this communication — when we speak to Him we hear from Him.
And then a day comes when we speak to God and it seems He is silent.
Christian author Jon Bloom says, “I’m not even going to attempt to answer why God seems silent.” But I like how Bloom talks about it. He asks us, and himself, questions:
“Why is it that absence makes the heart grow fonder but familiarity breeds contempt?”
“Why is water so much more refreshing when we’re really thirsty?”
“Why am I almost never satisfied with what I have but always longing for more?”
“Why can the thought of being denied a desire for marriage or children or freedom or some other dream create in us a desperation we previously didn’t have?”
Bloom goes on to ask other questions, “Why is the pursuit of earthly achievement often more enjoyable than the achievement itself? Why do deprivation, adversity, scarcity and suffering often produce the best character qualities in us while prosperity, ease and abundance often produce the worst?”
Do you see the pattern? The pattern is the design of deprivation. Many times when you don’t have something, it drives you. It moves you. It inspires you. If I were to use more descriptors, I would say it compels you. It draws you to seek after the thing that you truly desire — not only to seek after the thing that you truly desire, but to seek after the thing that God desires for you.
Can you imagine being held back for something? Maybe it’s something you’ve wanted so much, you’ve prayed to God for it, and God is silent on the matter. It’s not that He doesn’t want you to have the desires of your heart. It’s not that He doesn’t want you to have the blessings of life. He is silent because He wants to know: “How much, how bad, how much do you desire what I desire for you?”
God will place desires in our heart every day, but nothing can match the desire that He has for well-being, purpose and meaning in your life.
So when you think God is silent, it’s not that He is silent. It’s not that He is absent and He has abandoned you. He is so finely preparing you, fine-tuning you for the dream that you have.
I’ve been through it in my own life. I’ve had moments when I’ve wanted something so badly, and it seemed that God was silent. I’ll never forget one day when there was a knock at the door of my house. I had prayed an earnest prayer for a year, and I thought God had forgotten about it. That knock hit my door, and a package was delivered. I opened it, pulled out a document, looked at it, then screamed to my wife, “There is a God who hears our prayers.”
It had taken a year, and I thought God had forgotten about it. When it seemed God was silent, He was only teaching me a lesson.
I say this all the time. I believe it in my core being, and I want to share it with you: The promises and blessings God has for your life are greater than the perspective that you’re currently living in.
When you’re in those moments when God seems silent, know that God has promises and blessings for your life. He is just waiting to pour those out on you so that you can have fellowship with Him.
I love the passages from Job and Psalms because I’ve learned from gentlemen like Job and David that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
I pray that you are strengthened in your own prayers, when you feel that God is being silent — even for a long time — that He will continually draw you closer to Him. In moments of deprivation when it seems nothing will work, in moments of adversity when it seems you are challenged beyond belief, in moments of silence — I pray that God works in you a beautiful work so that His desire for you will be duplicated in you.
I pray that God will be ever-present with you, even when it seems He is so silent.
—Carl Ricketts, MDiv, is the director of chaplain services at Loma Linda University Medical Center