From John Collins Ministries:
People ask “Does God answer prayers?” Well, of course He does. But sometimes God’s silent, and as believers, we’ve all been there or we will be. We will earnestly seek God, but in return only sense and only acknowledge His silence and the silence is difficult when it comes to God. It’s frustrating and it makes you wonder why and if there really is one to a lot of people. Now the Bible tells a story of a man named Job who was well acquainted with God’s silence. In Job’s pain and suffering, he cried out to God, he asked for answers and he kept asking. But for the first thirty seven chapters of the book of Job, now understand, the first thirty seven chapters, his cry for God’s help and relief are met only by God’s deafening silence.
Now, as Christians, we are not always going to hear God’s voice, but from Job we can learn a few practical things to do when God is quiet in our lives. The first one is to examine your life. Begin by asking yourself, and this is important, “is there any unconfessed sin in my life?” Make sure nothing is blocking you from being able to hear God’s voice and getting His will. In Psalm 66:18 it says: If I had not confessed a sin in my heart, my Lord would not have listened. This requires looking deeply sometimes in our lives to find out if we are trying to deceive God, because remember, God knows if you’re sitting there drinking a cold beer or a glass of wine or doing whatever you’re doing, you’re thinking “one won’t hurt, God won’t know.” Yes, He does. God brings things into our minds. Just ask for forgiveness. And remember, there is no shame in repentance. That’s part of it. This act of faith pleases God and restores our fellowship with Him. So, if you need to repent, please while you’re still breathing, please repent. I’ve just had a friend die here in the last four days, I hope he repented, I’m not sure of that, but I sure hope so because once your eyes close, that’s it.
Recognize that God can be silent. There is no obligation for God to answer you, to inform you, or to let you know anything. You’re not God. God is said to be absolutely free. The knowledge of the Holy, because no one and nothing can hinder Him or compel Him or stop Him, He is able to do as He pleases always everywhere forever through eternity. Like us, Job faced the choice of acknowledging or rejecting the authority of God. Now, in response to his suffering and loss, Job’s wife suggested he curse God and die. A lot of people do that. Might take them a few years….they don’t get what they want….the heck with God, He ruined my life, He doesn’t know what He is doing…..oh He doesn’t know my life, He ruined it. I haven’t been able to go do anything because of what God wanted me to do. Instead of following her advice, Job chose to let God be God. Imagine that. Let God be God in our lives. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad, he asked, Job 2:10. Now accepting God’s authority also means actively trusting God. Realizing, no matter what we think, He is in control and can be trusted. And in the long run, it is going to be worth it. “Though He may slay me, I will hope in Him” says Job, Job 13:15. Nothing in Job’s life or in our life happens apart from God’s knowledge and plan.
We learned in the beginning of the book of Job, God was fully aware of all the things that were going to happen to Job. In fact, He gave Satan permission to do these things to Job’s life. Remember that. Listen to what God is saying. Although God may seem silent regarding a specific request, remember, He is in a constant state of communication with us if we will listen. In fact, it is possible that you already have your answer from God, you just don’t want to deal with it because it is not suiting your earthly reasons right now. The Bible is full of them. Full of what is right and wrong. It’s full of information about God’s character and His intention for us as His children and His followers. So let’s not forget to dig into God’s Word. It’s His written communication to us, to find out what He has to say about the problems that you’re facing or the questions you are asking. We all have questions. Something doesn’t go away, we want to know why. As you read the Bible, ask God to speak through you, He will.
Recognize that silence is not always bad.
Silence can also be a sign of God’s trust in you. The gospel of John tells a story about Jesus’ friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Jesus found out that Lazarus was ill, rather than rush to him and heal him, He stayed where He was for two more days. John 11:16 tells us that before Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had died. To Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, Jesus’ silence could have been interpreted as neglect, that Jesus did not care enough to want to help them. This is what many of our emotions think right now, today, that, oh, God doesn’t care, it’s not going our way, that He’s not listening to our cries for help. That’s not true. But in Jesus’ silence, we along with Mary and Martha are drawn into a new closeness to God and understanding of His power. Four days after he died, Lazarus was raised from the dead by Jesus, showing His power. When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible. He believes that you are going to do the right thing. And with absolute silence, not with absolute despair, but one of the pleasures, because He saw what you could do. Now some people don’t do what God thinks they are going to do, that’s the problem. That’s not God, that’s you. That’s you.
Now for Job, God’s silence was also the result of the depth of their relationship. When Satan approached God, God said “Have you considered my servant Job? And there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” Job 1:18. Just because God seems silent doesn’t mean you should doubt or stop praying. God’s silence is not a license for us to turn our backs on Him. Instead, it’s an invitation to press forward and seek Him even more diligently. In Psalms, crying out to God, David said “Oh my God, I cried by day, but you do not answer and by night, but I feel no rest.” Psalm 22:2. Job also continually cries out to God asking Him for answers. For pages and pages of the book of Job God is silent. But in chapter 38, God answers and He questions Job. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” asked God. “Tell me if you have understanding.” God is in control and has been all along. He heard Job’s cry for help. In trust, He waited for the perfect time to speak. Job was reminded of that.
I’m going to go back to Jesus for a minute. Jesus. In theology we learn a lot of things, but one thing that I don’t think a lot of people quite understand is that Jesus had hundreds, if not thousands, of followers. They were called disciples. But He only had twelve apostles. You read through the gospels and the epistles and you find out that they kept falling off at the wayside, they didn’t want to hear, they didn’t want to be around, and they wanted nothing to do with Him because they wanted it their way. It’s like the rich man came to Him and asked what do I need to do to follow you? He said sell all your stuff, give it to people and come on. He said, but I can’t, my father worked for that, it’s mine. That’s how people think right now, they will forget all the good things that God did to them. That time that you didn’t have the wreck when there is no way you shouldn’t have, the time you couldn’t walk because you hurt, the adultery that you committed that God’s forgiven, the times when you were very promiscuous when you were younger, signs that He’s shown you, the healings that He’s shown you, you’ll forget all those things because, guess what, it didn’t happen to you today. So you forget a year ago, or five years ago, or ten years ago, you forget that you were blessed enough to have gotten something that most people don’t get. That is an absolute miracle from God, He doesn’t pass them out like candy. He passes them out to those He knows will do the right thing.
Here’s a news flash, God knows how long it’s going to take for you to do the right thing. I don’t believe that you are in store for blessings until you can get your heart right and deal with it in the right manner. And I do believe that. In Romans 1:21, it says although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God. That’s the same thing with His Son, just because you know Him, doesn’t mean you glorified Him, and this is the basic expression of the root sin of pride which is the core of men and women’s fallen state. While this may not seem like a serious sin to you, it’s a sin in the eyes of God. It was a failure to glorify God that resulted in adultery and immoral living for King Belshazzar. The prophet Daniel came to him with a reproof. And in Romans 1:21 it says “nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.” This is a step down from what God wants from us. “Professing to the wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incomparable God into an image made by that corruptible man, birds, and four footed animals and creeping things.” Romans 1:22-23.
When God is removed from your life, something or someone must take His place. People get into books, they get into movies, they get into thinking they want something better, they get into fleshly thoughts, they get into “why me.” We go back to the people that followed Jesus, some of them actually left the area and went to other places because they didn’t want to be around Him because they had to be too good….I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to be hovered, I don’t want to be suffocated. That’s not the way to be righteous, people. That’s not even the way to be liked by God I don’t believe. When God is removed from your life, something or someone does take His place.
You just have to believe, go to Romans 1:28, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,” people are going to go ‘but I don’t hate God, I still love Him and fear Him.’ If you didn’t hate Him and you loved Him and you feared Him, then you wouldn’t be doing what you’re doing now, would you? You would be trying to cling to what you can in reference to God. You wouldn’t be trying to run away from Him, you’d be trying to get closer to Him more and more, because remember, things happen in God’s time. All you have to do is change your mindset. Remember what the beginning of this said, is that is there anything in you that you haven’t repented of? Is there anything there that you need to? Do you need to cleanse your soul again, do you need to get closer to God, do you need to get closer to His Son, do you need to come home, do you need to do the right things, because swaying and becoming of this world will get you what I hope you don’t want, and that’s eternity in a fiery pit.
Pastor John Collins, Love That Cross 