How many of us have been in a
place where we are waiting on God concerning something and it's just silence
through it? Or God is even speaking to you but He is not addressing that exact
situation?
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I have been in this place too.
Where I am waiting on God for a
thing, I am praying and to the best of my knowledge I have checked everything
that needs to be checked, yet I am still in the waiting room
It is not even being in the waiting
room that is the problem. It is the deafening silence in such times. In moments
like this, we start wondering what is happening. "Has God abandoned me? Or
maybe I didn't hear Him well the first time?"
God's silence, while we wait, can
make us feel a type of spiritual abandonment. You will almost doubt everything
you know to be true.
About three o’clock Jesus
cried out loudly, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” This means “My God, my God, why
have you left me alone?” Matthew 27:46 ERV
At about three o'clock
Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means,
“My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” Matthew 27:46 GNT
And at three o’clock Jesus
shouted with a mighty voice in Aramaic, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” —that is,
“My God, My God, why have you deserted me?” Matthew 27:46 TPT
From noon to three, the
whole earth was dark. Around mid-afternoon Jesus groaned out of the depths,
crying loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why
have you abandoned me?” Matthew 27:45-46
MSG
At about three o’clock,
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Matthew 27:46 NLT
Why have you abandoned me?
This was Jesus asking God
This was God asking God!
Read that again.
Whatever we are feeling, I need
us to know this: Christ has been there.
Be comforted in this knowledge,
that you do not have a high priest that doesn't understand your plight or is
disjointed from your pain. God understands how you feel. (hold this somewhere)
Jesus groaned out from the depth
of his heart.
It wasn't a silent "God why
you allow this thing happen." He cried out loudly from a place of pain.
His pain wasn't "My
God, why did you allow Judas betray me.", "Peter is going to betray
me, why?"
Christ's pain was in the silence
of God.
Why have you turned away?
Why have I been abandoned?
Why have you forsaken me?
What an alarming question. And
coming from Jesus that never for once complained, that was always doing the
will of the Father.
And guess what? The part that
actually humbles me is that, though Christ cried out. Heaven gave no response.
God maintained silence!
No miracle. No word of comfort.
No "don't worry, it is almost over. This is for a good cause" blah
blah, not even a sign to show that I am here
This really paused me. Like this
is your best soldier God, this is you, Christ is God.
For everyone feeling abandoned or
forsaken by God, I want you to know that you have a high priest that can
relate. Of course, we will never suffer the way Christ did but in His suffering
of the silence of God, He has demonstrated to us that we may not hear a word
but God's plan is still in the works. At that moment when Christ was crying
out, it was definitely a bad Friday from the level of pain.
But today, what do we say? Good
Friday!
There are moments in our lives
when we wonder where God is, but He is right there walking alongside us.
And this brings me right here:
God's silence is a matter of
perspective
It depends on the angle you are
looking from.
We will start with the case of
Jesus.
Christ felt abandoned and
forsaken. But was God really silent? He had already spoken.
What Christ was going through at
that point was really the pain of a process. God had spoken.
His speech was His love for
humanity. His word given as a covenant that Christ would come and die. He would
die in our stead.
While God may be silent, know
that He is in a constant state of communication with us. So it means that you
may be fixated on hearing a particular thing but what God is speaking to you is
strength and courage.
Again, silence is no indication
that God is not working or has stopped working, or God doesn't care.
Look at Lazarus. When Jesus heard
that Lazarus was ill, he didn't move. He stayed where he was for 2 more days.
This could have been interpreted as neglect, as Christ neglecting His close
friends. But guess what, if Christ had come immediately Lazarus would have been
healed and men may never know that it is possible for people to be raised back
from the dead.
In the silence of Christ, Mary,
Martha, and even we are drawn into a new dimension of God.
So what do we do when we are
faced with the silence of God? How do we respond?
1. Draw Near
Draw near to God and He
will draw near to you James
4:8a NKJV
So many times, in seasons like
this, what we tend to do is stay away from God;
We stop going to church
We stop fellowshipping
Or we are just doing it
absent-mindedly
On days when silence is what you
are met with, move closer. Stay even deeper in fellowship. When the bible says
to draw near to God and He will draw near to you. It doesn't mean that God is
waiting for you to come close before He moves also. As we draw closer, we get to see exactly how near He is to you. Our
eyes are opened to His proximity to us. We begin to see His love revealed
all the while we were thinking He was silent. We come to a better understanding
of His purpose.
Our patience is built
Our strength is increased
Our hope is renewed
It is in this place of drawing
near that we begin to count it all Joy. We are filled with Joy despite the
frustration.
It changes our countenance
completely
It changes our frustration about
the situation
Sometimes, we even get to find
out that He was speaking, we just couldn't hear because we weren't standing
close enough.
Also know that it is okay to ask
God questions. He is your father, lay your heart bare before Him.
2. Stop fixating on the
silence. Instead, engage God in prayers
Look at Habakkuk
He didn't stop speaking to God. He
kept asking and praying and guess what?
God responded to him;
Then the Lord answered me
and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who
reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will
speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will
surely come, It will not tarry. Habakkuk 2:2-3 NKJV
God's response was probably not
what he wanted. It wasn't a quick fix, but it came with assurance and
instruction.
"Though it tarries, wait for
it"
For some of us, this is what we
will hear as we wait.
I'm actually in a season such as
this, I don't want what it is and I have told God but He is not minding me.
At some point, He stopped
speaking altogether and now the only thing I hear is "Though it tarries,
wait."
It truly doesn't answer the full
questions I have but it carries an assurance from God that it will happen. So,
back to the waiting room.
3. Don't make your own quick
fixes
Some of us go ahead to do when God is silent. We do what we think
is reasonable/right.
Reminds me of the Israelites when
Moses had not come down from the mountain and they went to build idols. Silence
is not a pass for you to step in, God doesn't need your wisdom. Again, we must
learn patience while waiting.
I purposely made that appear in
the first part of our series. Don't conjure answers for yourself.
4. Accept God's
sovereignty
I've been singing this song since
last week:
Sovereign God
You do as it pleases you
Sovereign God
But am I really happy about how
He does these things? Am I satisfied in them? We must first accept that God is
sovereign. And when we say He does as it pleases Him, we must recognize that it
pleases God to make all things work out in our favor.
That He can do and undo doesn't
mean He is set out to frustrate our lives.
God delights in you
He has the best plan for you
And this too is etched inside of
His sovereignty
So when you don't know or
understand what is happening, hold on to the knowledge that whatever is happening,
it is God in charge of it and God's plans for you are always good!
5. Remind yourself whom you
are waiting on
Nothing is difficult for God. His
silence doesn't mean that He is stuck and does not know what to do. Far from
it. Say it to your innermost being.
Remind yourself constantly who
your God is, do not lose sight of this revelation of Him;
“I am the Lord, the God of
all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27 NIV
6. Rejoice
Don't be so fixated and worried
about the silence. Instead, rejoice! You are probably wondering why you should
be rejoicing right?
Well, rejoice because your God is
working. The problem is our shouts go up based on what we see.
We are not of this world, our
reactions are not tied to the happenings around us.
If you cannot hear His spoken voice, go to His written word.
Encourage yourself in it
Rejoice in it
Let the word stand above your
situation
7. Continue to Wait
What to do when God is silent?
Don't stop waiting.
Remember what I said last week
about the tiny strands being joined together?
Don't interrupt the process. You
just keep waiting on the Lord.
“The Lord is my
portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!” The Lord is good to those
who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:24-25 NKJV
This was written inside of
Jeremiah's cries. This period was a time when Jerusalem was going through
despair. This was after they had been captured by Babylon.
Yet, what did Jeremiah write? The
Lord is my portion!
I will not stop hoping
I will not stop believing that He
will come through
I will wait!
This should be our disposition
also.
