When God is Silent

What do you do when it seems as though the Lord is silent? When you’ve prayed and prayed, pouring your heart out to God, and there is no answer? Do you question whether He is really there, and truly hears? I know I have before. Our mid-week Bible study has been studying the life of David, and this week, in 1 Samuel 28, Saul gave us a great example of what NOT to do when the Lord is slow (by human standards) to answer. (Hint: necromancy does not honor God, and isn’t something in which we should engage, no matter how desperate we are to hear from God.) We could probably each identify a dozen or more unhelpful things to do in such a situation, but I thought it’d be helpful to mention a few we would do well to remember, that aren’t an abomination to the Lord.

I think the first thing we need to keep in mind is how the Lord speaks to us today. We no longer need a priest or a prophet to bring us the Word of the Lord; He has been faithful to record and preserve His Word for us in the Holy Scriptures. We have the Bible at our fingertips, in the palms of our hands or in our pockets, and it is still applicable to us and profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16). He speaks to us through His Word, and if we are not reading His Word, I would question the authenticity of our desire to hear from the Lord. That is not to say that every word in the Bible should be treated as though it always applies to every situation in which we find ourselves, or that Scripture contains a clear, concise directive on every decision we may face. Truthfully, it’s rarely that clear. But Scripture does say quite a bit about the character of the Lord and how He would have his people act, and those are good and wise standards we can use for evaluation as we wait for direction. 

The second thing of which we should be mindful as we consider this passage is why Saul didn’t hear from the Lord – he had rebelled against God and refused to obey completely the command of the Lord on multiple occasions – and as my children have often heard, partial obedience is really disobedience. Those who set themselves in opposition to the Lord’s plan, purpose, and/or people have no right to expect to hear words of comfort or guidance from God. If that is not us, if we are a part of the body of believers, then we can be confident that though the Lord may delay, He does indeed hear and will respond.

Thirdly, if we have put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are no longer the enemy of God. Jesus took upon Himself the silence of God at the cross; because the Father turned His face away then, He does not turn His face away from us now. We need to subject our perceived experience to the reality of what we know from Scripture to be true, not the other way around. Any perceived silence from God is not a departure of the Lord from us; although He may not keep to the timeframe we have in mind, He will answer us in His saving faithfulness at an appropriate time by His measure (Ps 69:13).

Finally, we can trust our good Father, who knows what we need and loves to give good things to those who ask Him, to also give us a good answer, although it may not take the form we had wished, or even answer the question we had asked. Personally, during the most profound time of wrestling with hard questions I’ve ever experienced, when I asked Him why He had allowed horrific events to take place, He did answer. But instead of telling me why He had allowed suffering, He reminded me that He is good. We need to hold our questions loosely as we take them to God, and to be open to whatever answer He has in mind. 

For another take, one that’s probably far more comforting in the midst of working through silence, you might consider listening to “The Silence of God” by Andrew Peterson.