Why Is He So Quiet?

Have you asked that question lately? If not lately, I bet you’ve asked it more than once before. Maybe you are in a place where you are asking God a question, or perhaps you are praying for a number of things. And you get silence. I feel your pain, your frustration, and even your anxious thoughts.

There are a number of things that are on my heart right now, places where I desperately want to see God move. I pray, I release it to Him, I determine to walk in faith, joy, optimism and peace, only to become angry at myself for failing to do that for more than an hour or two! What is up with silence on these things? Especially things I’ve prayed about over and over.

We certainly have an adversary who desires to trip us up and cause us to doubt God, but as followers of Christ, don’t we know better? Didn’t we put on God’s armor this morning? We also understand, that if God isn’t speaking yet, He’s still working. He has something for us to learn in the wait. We wonder, why is it taking me so long to learn whatever it is?

But over and above it all, deep down, I KNOW He has purpose in this wait. I was reminded of this today when one of my Bible studies, Easter:Behold Your King, led me to the wait at the tomb found in Matthew 27:57-61.

Can you imagine Jesus’ friends and family, waiting to finish preparing His body for burial? Imagine His followers wondering what happened to this Son of God. This wasn’t supposed to be this way, was it? He talked about being king forever, and now He’s dead.

The study pointed out that in the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection, God was silent. We were led to write down times in our lives when God was silent. Looking back, we can sometimes see clearly that He was working, and even in the wait, He was teaching us something He needed for us to know. But we probably could not see this during the silent wait.

The writer for this day’s Easter study reminded us that waiting is NEVER wasted, and that “the silence has a purpose.” I definitely needed to hear this today. And though I still want God to speak and work, and provide answers for these current situations, I choose to walk with Jesus, trusting His timing and His purpose as I wait in the silence.

My chronological Bible reading plan for today had me in the Exodus story. From the beginning, God was present with the Israelites as they left Egypt. In Exodus 13:21 we see that God directed them with His cloud and fire, showing them where to go ,and reminding them He traveled with them. When they feared attack from the pursuing Egyptians at the Red Sea, they thought it was the end. But Exodus 14:19-20 tells us that God placed angels between Israel and the Egyptians to provide safe crossing. God hadn’t abandoned them, and He hasn’t abandoned us. He is ALWAYS with His children, even when He is silent.

Just as the Marys at the cross waited, so I wait. What about you? Perhaps in the silence, we will begin to hear Him quietly whisper exactly what we need to hear. As we celebrate His resurrection this week, let’s remember that following the silence of the tomb, Jesus spoke loudly, at the right time, to fulfill the purpose of His life on earth: our salvation for eternity.

Banner photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash