Having Faith in God's Silence
Jul 12, 2009
In reading through the Bible in 90 days, we have discovered that God has called many people into a personal relationship with Him and invited them to journey with Him through this life. The truth is that God’s call into the relationship and journey is for each and every one of us.
We also discover that while there are similarities with this call, there are distinct individual particulars that surround each journey because is uniquely tailored to each individual.
God began his unique work of restoring his lost planet through a man named Abram, living in Ur of the Chaldees. From this man will come the redemption of God’s creation. As we read through the Bible at the beginning pages we discover that faith is a very important element in our journey with Yahweh. But this is not a generic faith or a faith in and of itself, rather it is a faith that is placed and focused on the God as revealed in the Bible. We’re not talking Allah, or Krishna, or Buddha here. We are talking about Jehovah God.
We discover as we have read that God’s desire is that through Abram and Sarai a great people of God will reveal to the whole world what the living God looks like and how unique and one-of-a-kind He is. God’s plan is that through this people the Messiah would come-- the One who would once and for all be the healer of the nations, the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and the Lord of all creation.
But Abram would have to pass through a series of challenges that would demonstrate his character, moral fiber, and his faith in and reliance upon God.
The first test as it were was to trust God with his own future, which included where he would live. The question: would Abraham obey and follow God to this new land he knew nothing about. This was a test that would take Abram out of his security and comfort zone. Fear needs security but faith takes risks. Has God ever sprung a pop quiz on you? Has He ever thrown you a curve ball or led you into scary territory and taken away your map? Our journey of faith with God often involves acts of obedience that takes us out of our comfort zone. First test for Abram: passed.
We fast-forward now to Genesis 15. Has God ever been silent to you? You pray but God’s phone is off the hook. You leave messages and there is no return call. You email God and it comes back as undeliverable. You ring His doorbell but nobody answers. There are times in our journey with God that He is silent. In our day and age of instant everything and faster this and that, when God doesn’t give us instant answers and quick access to His will then we go into panic, anxiety and worry mode.
How did we ever live without microwave ovens, computers, and cell phones? And aren’t you frustrated when you call someone on your cell phone and you have to leave a voice mail? Isn’t it aggravating when you text message someone and they don’t get right back to you? You betcha! We want fast food and we want fast answers from God. “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its mold, but let God renew you from within.” (Rom 12:3—Phillips)
If God doesn’t answer our prayers within days or even weeks we go into panic mode. I wonder how the Hebrews did it when they were slaves in Egypt crying out to God for deliverance for 400 years? Or the time between Malachi in the OT and Matthew in the NT another 400 years of God’s silence?
Abraham experienced this same kind of silence from God. He and Sarah had been promised that from them would come a great nation. He is beginning to worry and be anxious. Those of us who tend to be worriers can relate to Abraham’s situation. He had all the classic factors in place for a great anxiety moment:
God had been silent with no action happening.
The plans he had weren’t working out, as he perceived them.
These plans didn’t fit into his timetable.
Abraham was coming to believe that his health wouldn’t hold up long enough to see his dream come true.
Put yourself into Abraham’s sandals and you would be worrying too! The less predictable life is, the more we tend to worry, fret and be anxious.
How does God handle Abraham? God reassures him and restates His promise and even gives him a dramatic picture of what his future would look like. Look at verse 5, “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars [have you ever tried to count the stars?]—if you can count them.’ Then He said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” How did Abraham respond? “Abraham believe the Lord, and God credited to him as righteousness.” In an act of faith Abraham lets go of his worry and puts his hope in God’s promise even though he has no clue how God is going to pull it off and make it happen! “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Heb. 11:1)
As we continue down the verses of Hebrews11 we come to verses 11-12 and we read, “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” It is all about timing and the timing belongs to God. We get impatient. We get the hurries and try to force God to act before the right time.
While not excusing it we also discover that Abraham and Sarah got the ‘hurries’ and took God’s plan into their own hands. They let the customs of the world dictate how God was going to work. The world around them squeezed them into the world’s mold of doing things. When they got impatient, Sarah concluded that God’s will was going to be done through her handmaid, Hagar. And Hagar birthed a son, Ishmael. But this was not God’s plan and they messed up and we are still paying the price for this impatient, rash decision today. How so? Because the descendants of Ishmael are the Arab nations whilst the descendants of Isaac are the Jewish nation.
Who was Isaac? He was God’s promised son, the heir of Abraham’s inheritance and the progeny of God’s plan and grace. How old was Abraham when Isaac was born? How old was Sarah? In their worry and anxiety, in their lack of patience they attempted to do God’s will for Him. Yet even in their lack of patience and disobedience, but “he considered the ‘one who made the promise’ faithful” and God ultimately proved him right.
There are times in our lives when God seems silent and that silence tends to breed worry and worry begets fretting and fretting begets disobedience. Is God been silent about some dream He has given you? Remember that David waited 13 years after Samuel’s anointing to become King of Israel. Is God being silent while you are waiting to be rescued and delivered? Joseph waited in a pit and then in prison for years before God acted on his behalf. Is God silent about our vindication? Noah endured ridicule for some 100 years while he built a boat in a waterless land. Has God been silent about giving you children? Abraham and Sarah waited decades for a child and then had to wait 15 more years after hearing God’s promise of a child! Sometimes God answers in ways that we don’t like. Paul prayed that God would remove his ‘thorn in his flesh,’ but God refused and told him, “My power shows up best in your weakness.”
For those times in your journey when God is silent and you don’t know what do to, where to go, how to have faith, where to turn, or how to live here are a few verses to help carry you through those silent times.
“God makes everything happen at the right time.” (Ecc. 3:11 CEV)
“So do not worry about tomorrow; it will have enough worries of its own. There is no need to add to the troubles each day brings.” (Mt 6:34)
In case you’re also a bit impatient and hear someone say, “Don’t just sit there, do something!” Here is a verse that says, “Don’t just do something, sit there!”
Ps 37:7, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret.”
The following inscription was found on a wall of a German concentration camp that read “I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining. And I believe in love, even when I don’t feel it. I believe in God, even when he’s silent.”
When God is silent, fret not.