When God is Silent in The Quiet Place

The Silence of God has always been perplexing, and very difficult for any of us to understand. We long for a whisper of God's wisdom, to gain some insight into His purpose in allowing pain and suffering to cast a gray shadow upon our daily lives. There is no sound that burdens the sufferer more than the Silence of God.

The psalmist found himself near complete collapse as he faced a series of setbacks, enemies that sought to harm him and the cruel ridicule of others. Nothing seemed to help and God seemed to be absent and silent. Feel the painful desperation in his voice as he writes...

“Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold; I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched…My eyes fail, looking for my God.” Psalm 69:1-3

The Silence of God Tests our Faith

There is a time in the midst of severe testing, when human endurance, one's ability to cope, unending physical pain, the weariness of depression, and the overwhelming fatigue that goes along with suffering, take a dreadful toll upon one's life.

While suffering is an inevitable dimension of life, it seems foreign and unnatural....out of place when linked to a loving God, full of mercy and compassion. In reality, it is not possible to develop Christ like character and spiritual depth apart from experiencing seasons of personal suffering.

God Works throughout our Lives Silently

Each stage of our lives is woven as an intricate  personal tapestry, interlaced with a myriad of threads reflecting our own individual pilgrimage upon the pathways that we have taken. One cannot truly see or understand the true story behind the tapestry until it is turned over, and then the kaleidoscope of threads reveals a progressive work of infinite beauty.

Over our lifetime, God's skilled hands weave the tapestry, knowing what it will one day become. Others, even ourselves, cannot  make any real sense of the myriad of threads, especially when suffering and heartache, edge the rough borders of the pattern.

Only God is able to select each thread that is needed at a specific time in our pilgrimage here, and weave it into our lives, be it the first experience of feeling loved, difficult challenges in high school, depression, sorrow, the birth of a child, loss, success, failure, anxiety, illness and ultimately death.

“Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.” C.S.Lewis 

God's Silence does not mean He is not Present

All along the pathway, an infinite, all knowing, all powerful and ever present God, has been at work in our circumstances with the primary purpose to lead us to His heart. He purpose is to radiate His Spirit through our lives, so that we can become a display of His Glory and Majesty to a fallen world. 

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power  may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair." II Corinthians 4:6-8

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:10a

When God is Silent in The Quiet Place

There are numerous examples in Scripture where God made His will specifically known during difficult times of testing. His purpose was often made known whereby He could reveal His will to each servant individually. We are eager for quick answers, while He is desirous that we trust His Word, and learn to walk by faith and not by sight. Some of God's answers can only be heard in our own personal Gethsemane.

On some of those occasions, the individual being tested, expected God to disclose His purpose to them in a different way than He did. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Jeremiah, and many other Bible characters, struggled with this very issue. There is a principle that is universal to life: 

The natural man must see in order to believe, but the spiritual man must believe in order to see. 

During a time of great struggle, the psalmist was able to reach through his anguish, cling to God in faith, and eventually trust in the reliability of God's faithfulness, and the complete reliability of His Word.

“My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:10-11

God Speaks to us in the Midst of Suffering

God may seem to be silent, but He is speaking through His Word. The experience of suffering does not produce spiritual depth in our lives in and of itself. It is how we react to suffering that determines one’s spiritual growth through sorrow and pain. 

The discipline of suffering has a primary purpose to accomplish within each of us: God wants above all else for us to be His.

We discover that when we are thrust into trials that are filled with sorrow and laced with hopelessness, that it is He alone that understands. He draws near to nurture and comfort us, and He is desirous to heal our broken heart more than our physical pain.

“This is the purpose of pain for the redeemed: it is one of your Father's ways of speaking to you; it is the evidence of His limitless love, by which He would draw you farther from evil and closer to Him, the divine remedy which can cure you of pride and help you lean more trustingly on the Lord.”  Walter A. Maier

 

When God is Silent - Listen with your Heart 

In the midst of suffering, we discover a rare and blessed intimacy with God that is comforting, as slowly the emotional or physical pain gives way to a sweet song of worship and praise. God’s grace is most present in the lives of the weak, the humble, the downtrodden, the weary and the those who are broken. God may seem to be silent, but He speaks through His promises that are scattered like diamonds throughout the Scriptures.

“Come near to God and he will come near to you…” James 4:8

When we reflect upon the past, we remember the many times where God provided grace and strength, and we are reminded that He has always been faithful. He is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in the midst of sorrow with a nurturance and care that only He can provide (See II Cor. 1:2-4).

We remember that He came near to hear our cry, and He reached forth and healed our wounds, but He did not remove the scars. Our scars have the capacity to remind us that the past was real, and rather than represent mere reminders of our suffering, they become memorials to the grace and glory of God.

Ideally, when a child is hurting and afraid, he runs to his father, and the immediate response of the father is to open his arms and embrace him. So it is with our Heavenly Father. His desire is to bring comfort to us and sooth our tears with His love. In His arms, the silence gives way to the sound of His heart beating against ours, and we become one with Him in the fellowship of His sufferings (See Phil. 3:10).

“The suffering of sickness and the suffering of persecution have this in common: they are both intended by Satan for the destruction of our faith, and governed by God for the purifying of our faith... Christ sovereignly accomplishes His loving, purifying purpose, by overruling Satan's destructive attempts. Satan is always aiming to destroy our faith; but Christ magnifies His power in weakness.” John Piper

God Allows Suffering to call us to Stillness

The Quiet Place is often bathed in the tears of God's people, for it is the very dew that covers the pathway to the heart of God, and it is precious to Him. God sometimes silently and purposefully shuts the door to a relief from our sorrow and suffering. We hear the click of the door to our freedom from pain, as he closes us in where only He is present. He may seem far away, but He is always there beside you, just as He has promised in His Word that He would be.

(See Deuteronomy 4:31; 31:6, 8; Psalm 27:10; 37:28; 94:14; John 14:18; Matthew 28:20)

He does this so that He may speak in the midst of our grief and pain, and softly whisper precious promises to us of His abiding presence.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3

That is His most cherished gift to us in the midst of the storm. He commands the storm to be still not to prevent our boat from sinking, but to enlighten us who need to see in order to believe, that He has been there with us in the midst of the storm as we huddled fearfully in the bottom of the boat.

God's Silence and Unanswered Prayer

One of the realities of unanswered prayer, in the midst of difficult trials and suffering, is to learn to be obedient, regardless of any change in our circumstances. The book of Hebrews reveals to us that Christ Himself learned obedience to His Father as He passed through the crucible of suffering.

“During the days of Jesus' life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Although He was a son, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.”  Hebrews 5:7-9

God is not Silent - He is Speaking in the Quiet Place

It is very tempting for a Christian to become bitter in the midst of suffering by hardening his heart toward God for allowing the suffering, and for not delivering him from it. Disappointment with God can create a seed of resentment toward Him, and unless it is laid before the Throne of Grace, it turns into a root of bitterness. We are urged to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us (I Peter 5:7), and to kneel before the Throne of Grace in the hour of our greatest need. 

God is not Silent - He is Listening to your Heart

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  Hebrews 4:15-16

When Christ Himself suffered the indignities and shame of the cross, while enduring unimaginable torture and pain, He remained obedient to the will and purpose of His Father. He knows what it is like to experience physical, emotional and mental pain and sorrow. Drawing near to Him in the midst of suffering helps us to bear up during our hardship and remain free from bitterness.

God is not Silent - He Understands what it is like to be Tested

“Because He himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”  Hebrews 2:18 

What are we most tempted to do when we are experiencing insufferable pain and unrelenting disappointment? Our greatest temptation is to blame God, and become bitter toward Him as we wonder, “Where is God when it hurts?” We can struggle with His seeming absence, and conclude that He just doesn’t really care.

“I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.” John Henry Newman

God is not Silent - He is wants us to give Him the Unbearable Burden 

The only shoulders strong enough to carry our burdensome suffering, once carried an old rugged cross to become our substitute for sin...He suffered and died for every one of us. He alone can bear the Unbearable Burden for He already has.

^"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”  I Peter 1:18-20

God is never Silent… He speaks through the darkness of your lonely night. God is never Silent...He speaks to you though His Word. God is never Silent… He whispers your name to call you to Himself. God is never Silent...He is there beside you as you read these words…ready to comfort you. God is never Silent…He is waiting for each of us in The Quiet Place where comfort and trust in Him, will become more meaningful than understanding the reason why.

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassion never fails. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him…” Lamentations 3:22-23

Take a moment to listen to this song by Andrew Peterson entitled The Silence of God

 

Gaining new Strength in the Eye of the Storm

The chaotic onslaught of turbulent weather patterns and violent storms, detonate across the landscapes of the world every day. The Colorado State University Meteorologist Forecaster’s Team anticipate that there will be 17 - 25 separate tropical storms each year. Approximately 9-11 of those will become hurricanes during the apex of the storm season, that runs from June 1 to November 30. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, report that there appear to be an increase in storms lacing across the regions of the world in the form of Cyclones, Typhoons, Monsoons, Tornadoes, and Hurricanes (http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/).

The National Hurricane Center has a list names of worldwide tropical cyclones that and has projected storms that we can anticipate to impact other parts of the world from 2014-2019 (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml/).

Cyclonic Storms around the World

The Hurricane 


A hurricane is a powerful, rotating storm that forms over warm oceans near the equator in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, or the eastern Pacific Ocean. 

The Severe Tropical Cyclone

A cyclone is a closed, rotating wind. Cyclones rotate counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Typhoon

A typhoon is a violent tropical cyclonic storm that forms in the Western Pacific Ocean. It derives its name from the Chinese word taaîfung, which means Great Whirling Wind.


Life Storms hit Everyone
 

Everywhere we look there are multitudes of recurrent Life Storms that are raging across people’s lives. These unexpected events impact financial resources, destabilize a family's economic security, and in some cases greatly affect their capacity to survive. Life Storms crash into us in recurring waves, just like the great whirling winds of cyclonic storms. 


Each wave envelopes us before we have fully recovered from the impact of the previous one. We often continue to cope with each storm the very same way we did the last one. We hunker down, hang on and try to survive the onslaught of the storm. It may be a death in the family, the foreclosure of the family home, the collapse of a business, or any number of tragic events.


Life Storms can Transform our Faith

You may think that God is punishing you, or isn’t taking care of you, but life storms hit everyone, and they often come without advance notice. When a storm hits your life, after a period of intensity, there will always be a period of calm. It often does not mean that the storm is over, for you just might be standing in the eye of the storm. Without tough times, faith does not grow. Stormy trials are periodic disruptions in our life to keep our faith riveted in God, and not our financial portfolio, our financial consultant, our 401 k or anything else that can easily become a false god in our lives. 

In the Eye of the Storm

“On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 

"And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”  Mark 4:35-41


Restore your Faith in God
 
Like a howling hurricane, whose counterclockwise motion goes in a circle in the opposite direction from the way a clock moves, Life Storms cause us think through problem solving impulsively, irrationally and often not Biblically. The Devil likes to make us dizzy, overwhelmed, and confused during a Life Storm. 

Jesus had told the disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.”


They kept their eyes on the storm instead of holding firm to the promise of His word to them. He promised that they would make it to the other side, He just didn't mention that  a storm would hit them on the way to test their faith.

 

Surrounding the eye of the storm is the eyewall. It is a band of thunder clouds. The eyewall has the most rain and the strongest winds of the storm, gusting up to 225 mph.

 
The devil wants us to try to break through the wall of the storm in our own strength, or run away from it. That would be disastrous. Stand firm in the Eye of the Storm and look straight up, and you will see the sun shining in the sky above.

“In the whirlwind and in the storm is His way, and the clouds are the dust beneath His feet.” Nahum 1:3.

Storms are not something that God cannot see you through. God will always show us how to respond Biblically in any situation. The details may vary, but principles from His Word do not (See Proverbs 3:5-6).


“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. “ Psalm 119:105

Renew your Strength

In The Quiet Place we are able to draw strength from God’s presence, and be renewed through His Word. Give the burden of your Life Storm to God and lay it down at the Throne of Grace. ( See I Peter 5:7; Hebrews 4:16)

The psalmist acknowledged in the midst of a Life Storm: 


“My life dissolves and weeps itself away for heaviness; raise me up and strengthen me according to [the promises of] Your Word.”  Psalm 119:27-28  (AMP) 

Even the beginning of new seed faith in our trust in God gives spiritual awakening in our heart and produces renewed faith.

Pray to God to give you strength today for whatever Life Storm that you are going through. “In the day when I cried you answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul.” Psalm 138:3

 
Rest in His Word
 
There is a calm assurance that comes to one who has trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That confidence comes through our daily time of worship in The Quiet Place as we pray and read the Scriptures. 


“Remember the Word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your Word has revived me.” Psalm 119:49-51

God will reveal how to get through the Life Storms that crash in upon any of us. He calls us to spend time with Him in The Quiet Place. He will show us how to stand firm in the Eye of the Storm, strengthened in our faith as we trust in His Word, to show us the way. God will always be faithful.

Take a few moments to listen to this very inspirational video. Remember, there is no storm so great, that takes God by surprise....He is right there...reach out to Him,,,