Day 6

When God is Silent (part 1)

"Has there ever been a time when God seemed silent for so long that you questioned your relationship with Him?"

Silent for so long that you even wonder if you imagined that you heard His voice? When you wonder if you ever really knew His wisdom and direction?
Have you every experienced times when God seems so distant, so far away that the joy of His presence seems lost to you? A shroud covers your soul. You feel devoid of the emotions that once inflamed your soul in passion for your Lord and your God.
Heaven is silent. Winter has set in. Your heart shivers. The warmth of intimacy is gone. You try to rekindle a fire, but to no avail. Your spirit reaches out in the cold darkness to touch Him, only to confront, lonely, numbing, confusing, discouraging...silence.
I must admit, there have been times in my life when God has been silent. When the joy and the sense of the deep intimacy of His presence have eluded me. When I felt I was hearing nothing new from His Word.
And it was hard, especially when others would share how He had been speaking to them. Sometimes it brought pain, sometimes doubt, and sometimes jealousy. Why was God speaking to them and not to me? What was I doing or not doing- or what should I have been doing in order to get God to reveal Himself to me as He was revealing Himself to others? Sometimes I even allowed pride to overtake me as I pretended to be able to relate to their joy.
But it's a times like that when I have been the most thankful for the years I have spent in the Word of God. For it is during the periods of silence- when our relationship with God seems devoid of joy and excitement and we don't know why-that we have to walk in the gut-level knowledge of all that we have studied. We have to believe God is there, that He has not moved, and that for some reason or other He has chosen to be "silent" for awhile.
God's silence is not like our human silence. When He is silent, it does not mean that He is not working or that He has abandoned us, the work of His hands. Oh, no!
God does not change, or are His promises made null and void, for even "if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13).
There is always a reason for God's silence-purpose under heaven.
He may be silent because He has spoken and we have not responded- so He waits. Or He may have spoken and we have said "no"- so He gives us time to see the consequences of our disobedience. Or He may want to speak, but we are so busy that we are not giving Him the silence needed to hear His "still small voice" in the recesses of our hearts. Or God may be silent because it is His time to be silent.
In any intimate relationship there are always periods of silence. God's silence may be a test of our faith. Will we who fear the Lord, who obey the voice of His servant, who walk in darkness and have no light, trust in His name and rely on Him regardless of His silence (Isaiah 50:10)?
For it is then that we must wrap ourselves in His blanket of faith and our confidence in His Word; we must steep ourselves in His Word and cling to His promises. Cling, until He breaks the silence.
What God is doing is not without purpose, and when He does break the silence, our relationship with Him will be more treasured that before.
MadameGuyon, a French woman who lived during the reign of Louis XIV, knew a great deal about the silence of God. For seven years she was bereft of religious joy, peace, or emotions of any kind- a time of "privation or desolation."

   During all that period, she had to walk by faith alone. She continued her devitions and her works of charity but without the pleasure and satisfaction she had previously felt...For seven years she kept looking for feelings and emotions before she learned to live above the feelings and by simple faith in God. Then she found the life of faith is much lighter, holier, and happier than the life governed by feelings and emotions.
    Almost seven years after she lost her joy and emotions [Madame Guyon] began to correspond with Father La Combe, whom she had been the means of leading into the light of salvation through faith some years previously. He was not the instrument of leading her out into the clear light and sunshine of Christian experience. He showed her that God has not forsaken her as she was so often tempted to believe but that He was crucifying the self-life in her.
   "I had a deep peace which seemed to prevade the whole soul, and resulted from the fact that all my desires were fulfilled in God. I feared nothing; that is, considered in its ultimate result and relations, because my strong faith placed God at the head of all perplexities and events. I desired nothing but what I now had, because I had full belief that, in my present state of mind, the results of each moment constitutes the fulfillment of the Divine purposes. As a sanctified heart is always in harmony with the Divine providences, I had no will but the Divine will, of which such providences are the true and appropriate expression."

What Madame Guyon learned, in essence, was that God was her all in all. He was all that mattered- not her emotions, not her desires, not her pleasures....only God. It was when she understood this that she began to walk in the totality of meekness.
Meekness is not weakness...it is strength. His strength. Meekness is accepting everything as coming from God without murmuring, disputing, or retaliating...even His silence.
Madame Guyon consecrated herself wholly to God; He could do with her as He pleased. She would no longer look to external experiences or internal joys. Instead she would find rest in His sovereign dealings, whatever they were.
Feel it or not, see it or not, hear it or not, she knew that "He Himself has said, 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?' "(Hebrews 13:5-6).
Her soul caught fire with this new depth of understanding, and as her soul caught fire, she lighted the way for the spirit of revival in almost every place she visited, and God used her mightily in France and many parts of Europe- until Louis XIV imprisoned her. But so great was her faith that her prison seemed a palace. She knew she was not forsaken; the Lord Jesus Christ was there- permitting the prison but sharing her cell.
Sometimes I know you, too, must feel forsaken, but you are not. He will not forsake you...He cannot forsake you. It would go against His very Word and character.
Why? Because God will never abandon the work of His hands. "he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).
Salvation is of the Lord. He is the One who chose you in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world that you should be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore, what God began, God will complete. He "is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy" (Jude 24).
God may be silent- trials, testings, and challenges to our faith may come- but you and I can know with absolute surety that although we may be wounded, we cannot be defeated. God is watching over us. Whether we feel His presence and watchcare or not, God is there- maybe not manifesting Himself now but never ceasing to love us with His everlasting love and never failing to cause all things...even His silence...to work together for our good.             -to be continued....
(Arthur, 2002, pp.32-36)

This reading is so very true! There have been many times when God has been silent in my life or simply told me to wait. Most of the time this has been extremely frusterating for me, for I am not a patient person! Yet, His timing is always perfect. I've also realized that waiting doesn't mean that I can't be "working" and doing things in His name while I wait for Him to speak. I can honestly say that I've heard the voice of God a few times (the last was a few years ago) and each time it's unmistakable. You simply can not deny what He is saying. I haven't always liked what He was telling me either. In fact I did deny and refuse to follow for a very long time, which left me in a long period of silence with God. But the day that I admitted that my way was not correct, He was there, speaking to me.
Today I am in a period of silence between God and me. Yet, this is not a stand off this time. This time feels different and I know I am just waiting, though for what I'm still unsure. I know He will tell me what it is when I need to know it. Until then He is refining me and my trust, faith, and reliance on Him. The more I think about it, this might even be what He is making me wait for, until I am refined enough to serve His purpose! Regardless, everything will work together for good.