Day 7

Continued...

Once the seven years of silence were broken in the life of Madame Guyon, she was never the same. God's hand was upon her in an even mightier way. Her faith had been tested and proven: for although God seemed distant during that time, Madame Guyon did not veer from her profession of faith. She continued to walk in what she knew, learning to rely on what God had already spoken, rather than on how she felt.
It was in the very learning of this that she was enabled to live as more than a conqueror in the years to come when a king, empowered by Satan, would seek to destroy her faith by shutting her up in prison on the two different occations and then finally banishing her. Yet she spent the remainder of her life undefeated.
Even when He is silent, God's purpose is always victory, not defeat. So we can trust Him even in the silence.
Sometimes, however, we equate silence with separation, but with God that can never be true. God will never separate Himself from one of His children (Romans 8).
At times the Lord may seem distant, far away, unreachable, and uncommunicative in an intimate way. But you can know this: He is there. You and God are never apart. Separation from His love, from His promises, from Himself is impossible as far as God is concerned.
Silence?
It's possible.
Separation?
Absolutely impossible.
Like Madame Guyon and millions of others, we must continue to cling to the truth of His Word- even when He is silent. This is the assurance of faith, that nothing can separate us from our heavenly Father.
The apostle Paul poses the questions of a troubled heart in Romans 8:35:
     "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
And the answer, of course, is "nothing, and no one!"
The wuestion I want to ask, however, is, "why do we even have to ask?" We have to ask because of our own misconceptions.
Any time God is silent, or any time He allows His own to undergo difficult circumstances or situations, there is a tendency to think God has forsaken us. Otherwise we would not be going through what we are going through!
We forget that in this life we are expendable for the sake of furtherance of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote in Philippians 2:17:
       "Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all"
We human beings don't handle rejection very well. And when it comes to persecution and trials- well, our natural tendency is to wonder what we have done wrong to bring us into such painful difficulty. We have to be reminded that we are "considered as sheep to be slaughtered" for His sake and that death is to work un us so that life can work in others (Romans 8:36; 2 Corinthians 4:12).
Still, "in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." We conquer- not because of what we feel or because of what we experience- but because of who God is and where He is!
     "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
If you are in, or ever enter, a period of silence in your relationship with the Lord, or if you ever enter into great trials of faith, in is critical that you remember the declaration of faith penned by the apostle Paul and uttered by every succeeding generation:
       "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).

These were not pious, lofty, poetic words needed to strike the match of faith. No, they were certainties of faith pounded out like steel in white-hot heat of the anvils of trials. This is the same man who wrote to the Corinthians, telling of beatings, stonings, dangers, robberies, sleepless nights, times of extreme hunger and thirst, imprisonment, exposure, and shipwreak that left him for a day and night in the deep (2 Corinthians 11:23-27). This is the man who testified that nothing could separate him from the love of God!
But, you may say, "That was the apostle Paul!" All right, then, let me show you the same proclamation from the lips of Madame Guyon. This frail but mighty woman of God lost everything thsi world affords. After ten years in a damp, dark, underground dungeon, she could write:
            A little bird I am,
            Shut from the fields of air;
            And in my cage I sit and sing
            To Him who placed me there;
            Well pleased a prisoner to be,
            Because my God, it pleases Thee.

           Naught have I else to do;
           I sing the whole day long;
          And He whom most I love to please
          Doth listen to my song;
          He caught and bound my wandering wing,
          But still He bends to hear me sing.

          My cage confines me round;
          Abroad I cannot fly;
          But though my wing is closely bound,
          My heart's at liberty.
          My prison walls cannot control
          The flight, the freedom, of my soul.

          O, it is good to soar
          These bolts and bars above,
          To Him whose purpose I adore,
          Whose providence I love;
          And in Thy mighty will to find
          The joy, the freedom, of the mind.

Wouldn't you say that Paul and Madame Guyon- and many more like them throughout the centuries- have been more than conquerors through Him who loved them? For whether God was silent or not, they knew He still loved them; He had not forsaken them. And, Beloved, whether God is silent or not, He still loves you; He has not forsaken you. So what is to prevent you from living as more than a conqueror?
Even when God seems distant,
even when He is silent,
continue to walk by faith,
trusting in His name.
Relying on all that He has said to us in His Word, then, we know that even in the silence He is working. And when eventually that silence is broken, the sound of His voice, the awareness of His presence will be glorious.
This is graphically illustrated in the history of Israel. Four hundred years of silence. That's what Israel endured during the intertestamental period, from the ringing words of the last prophet until the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Four hundred years of silence. And yet God was there all the time.
The last words Israel heard as a nation were those spoken by Malachi the prophet. The silence was not broken until four hundred years later with the cry of John the Baptist in the wilderness: "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!" (John 1:29).
Glorious? I guess! Finally, Messiah had come! Messiah, the One promised to Adam and Eve when they sinned in Eden (Genesis 3:15)...the promise they had awaited for 4,000 years.
When I picture this in my mind, I see the Jews flocking out into the wilderness to hear the words of John the Baptist. Can you imagine their excitement? Four hundred years of silence broken.
And as I picture this, as I share their excitement, their awe, I cannot help but turn my thoughts to that moment when once again God will personally invade history and once again the world will hear His voice, for...
"the Lord Himself will decend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord"
                                                                                                                    (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
What a day, what a glorious day that will be! Never again will there be silence, never again a feeling of distance between you and your Lord. Never again shall a doubt of His love violate our faith; for we shall see God as He is, and we shall be with Him forever-more. Hallelujah!
We shall dwell in sweet union and communion forever and ever, and the suggereings of this present time will not be worthy to be compared with the glory that will be ours (Romans 8:18).
The final silence will be broken, and we will see Him as He is...as He has been...there all the time.
         "My soul waits in silence for God only;
          From Him is my salvation. 
          He only is my rock and my salvation,
         My stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken"   (Psalm 62:1-2).

(Arthur, 2002, pp. 36-40)

Today, as we celebrated and remembered the life of a loved one, I can't help but think of all those that I know going through rough times. It is my hope that these words of encouragement will help you in your journey and comfort you when times seem impossible. All things work for the glory of God and the good of us, whether we realize the true value or not.