If you’ve lived long enough, you have had what has been called, a “dark night of the soul.” You know, those times in life when we endure difficult or painful seasons and God seems silent. During those times, we can easily feel alone. Books have been written on this topic dating back to the early church.
Longer ago still, two well-known people in the Bible spoke loudly to this perceived response of silence. The psalmist David cries out to God, “O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!” (Psalm 83:1) and then again in Psalm 13:1, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”
But first, there was Job who watched his life crumble with loss after loss and lamented, “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.” (Job 30:20) Job never discovered God’s reason for silence but is chastised by God for not trusting His much broader picture for this life. In other words, Job lacked God’s perspective. During his suffering, he determined to trust God’s wisdom without an explanation.
God goes silent. But is He? In Job’s case, God was talking with Satan and working behind the scenes. In Daniel 10, Daniel waited for three weeks for God to answer. When the answer finally arrived, it was accompanied by an angel who told Daniel that God heard his prayer immediately and dispatched His messenger. But the angel was delayed by intense spiritual warfare in the heavens for 21 days and in fact, called for reinforcements—he enlisted the archangel Michael to help win the battle. God was working behind the scenes. He wasn’t silent at all.
Isaiah reminds us that God doesn’t forget us as our names are written on His hand (Isaiah 49:16). And David tells us to trust in God’s unfailing love. Even so, it sure feels like the waiting can be forever when we hear nothing.
Silence is like losing your WIFI. The connection feels lost. However, our response is to trust even when we don’t understand the “why” or feel what seems a stinging silence. We do know the “who” despite the feeling of lost connection. He says he will never leave us or forsake us. So, push through your doubt when God is silent. He is still there and may be cultivating in you a needed dependence on Him.
When you are in a dark time and God seems silent, ask yourself: Am I really listening? Has sin drowned out God’s voice? Am I ready to hear and I’m tuned in? Oswald Chambers, in his devotional, “My Utmost for His Highest,” reminds us that our walk with God describes our character. God’s presence is real and ever present whether we feel it or not. Do we trust that reality? Silence pushes us to do so.
When God seems silent
