Sometimes in our lives it seems God is completely silent. We pray and nothing happens. We read God’s Word and don’t find what we’re looking for. We seek for answers and seem to get nothing.
We read in John chapter 11, the story about Lazarus.
The story starts out, “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.'” (verses 1-3)
Now, here was a very good friend of Jesus, who was very sick. And one would think that the moment He heard about that, He would have dropped what He was doing and come to his aid. However, the Bible tells us in verse 6, “So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”. Huh? Wait a minute…He just ignored the fact that Lazarus was sick? He stayed where He was and continued doing what He was doing?
Then, we find that Lazarus DIED! Now, if Jesus had just said the word, Lazarus would have been healed from His sickness. He didn’t even have to travel to where Lazarus was. Yet, He didn’t say anything like that, and He didn’t immediately travel to where Lazarus was. And now, Lazarus was dead! Did God not care? Was He not at all concerned about this?
Well, if you read the rest of the story, you’ll find that Jesus did finally come to Bethany where Lazarus body was laid in a tomb – FOUR DAYS LATER! He must not have cared at all? He certainly wasn’t in any hurry to do anything about it?
No….God always cares. He just doesn’t act or react the way WE think He should or WE would act and react to situations. When Jesus came to Bethany, He raised Lazarus from the dead. And in verse 45 of that chapter we read, “Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.” MANY people came to know Jesus Christ as a result of this miracle which He did. That was His plan all along. He knew exactly what He was doing.
Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” God is in COMPLETE control of EVERYTHING. Always has been, always will be.
When it seems like God is silent, that He doesn’t care, that He doesn’t answer. That’s when we need to trust Him more and remember that HE IS GOD!
When God is “silent” or seems to not be there…it is usually for one of several reasons.
1. We’re not really listening. We’ve made up our mind about certain situations, and we pray and ask God for guidance, but we don’t really care what God has to say about the matter. God knows our heart. He waits many times for us to realize His way is best, and we have to learn to trust Him.
2. We have things in our life that we need to get rid of. A lot of times, it’s not that God isn’t listening or doesn’t care, it’s that we have things that are not pleasing to Him in our life that we refuse to deal with or get right. Many times God will wait until we repent of our sins and get our life right with Him. Remember, God doesn’t dwell where there is darkness.
3. We’re not ready. Maybe God wants us to learn some things, like trusting Him completely. That’s what happened to Job in the Bible. Once he learned to completely trust God, things started to change.
God loves us unconditionally, and He ALWAYS is in control. He knows EXACTLY what He is doing. When He is silent, or seems to be far away, many times He just wants us to SEEK HIM MORE, and Seek Him with ALL of our Heart, Mind, and Soul.
If we seek Him and ONLY Him in the silence, if we draw nearer and nearer to Him, getting rid of the darkness in our lives – He will draw near to us, and we will see that He was ALWAYS near, and His plan ALWAYS is PERFECT!