When God Goes Silent

What do you do when it seems like God has gone silent in your life? What happens when you find yourself in a season of your life, or maybe in what seems like the longest moment of your life, and you feel stuck, and as if God is not answering you? Do you faint and give up? Do you loose faith and say “God doesn’t hear me, and He doesn’t care” ? What do we do when it seems like we are crying out to God, but to our dismay, He has yet to answer.

The answer is simple. You wait on Him. Draw Near to Him. And you trust Him.

I know that sounds cliché, and it can be a bit infuriating if we’re being honest. That feeling of loneliness, or distance from God. Sometimes, you find yourself praying, and calling out, and in return, you’re met with silence. But could it be that God’s silence is still an answer? Could it be that the God of the universe hears you and is tuned in to your cries, and your voice, and your situation, but it’s you who is not tuned in to His voice?

So many times we start praying for things, and if God does not answer immediately we give up on prayer and petition, and take matters in to our own hands. So many times we assume that because God does not yell out and make the earth tremble with an answer, that He is not answering us, or even that He is not aware.

So again, we come back to what do we do when God seems to have gone silent in our lives?

Well, I don’t claim to be any kind of religious scholar, or theologian. I’m simply me, a person doing the best I can to walk with God and live an upright life according to His will and purpose for my life. But like you, I’ve been through some things. We have all faced seasons and storms in our lives that brought us to our knees. We have all had moments in our lives where we are praying and believing and calling out to God, and it seems like our need and our plea is met with silence. But the truth of the matter is, God is NEVER far from you. He promised us in Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” And this is a promise that He has shown me over and over again that He will always keep. He will never leave you and He will never forsake you.

You’re still asking “Well why won’t He answer me?” Simple. God wants to know will you trust Him when you don’t see the way. Will you remain faithful when it seems like the way has gone dark and the path is unclear. So many times we find it easy to trust God when the way is clear and the path is well lit. We sing His praises and we rejoice in the obvious presence of God. But then the storm comes, and the winds begin to rage, and we forget that the same God that was there when the blessings were plentiful and the grass was green and the rivers were abundant, is the same God in the valley and in the desert, and when we find ourselves in the belly of the whale. Have you lost your praise? Because your praise is your fortitude. Your praise is what gives you the strength to keep going when it seems like God has removed the training wheels and is waiting for you to push off and pedal on your own. It’s not that God does not hear you, and it’s not that He has gone anywhere. He hears you, and He is right there with you. But sometimes, God will take a step back and allow you to walk ahead of Him just a little bit in order to build your trust. Do you believe that He is still there even when you don’t see Him? Do you know that He is still working, even when you don’t see results?

See God is attempting to build your trust in these moments of silence. He tells us in Isaiah 41:13 “For I, The Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, for I will help you’”. See? He promises us right there that He will hold our hand always and help us. But what He wants to know is that you TRUST Him to do just that. God is not ignoring you. God is not punishing you nor has he cut you off. Romans 8:39 says “Not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” You might FEEL like God is not present in your life, but I promise you He is present every day every moment every second of every day of your life.

You’ve heard the saying “A good teacher will remain quiet during the test.” And so it is with God. Another reason that God is sometimes silent is because He wants to test you. He wants to observe and find what you’ve learned. He wants to know have you truly learned how to trust Him and submit to His will, do you believe Him when He makes you a promise, are you fortified and built up in the Word and Truth of God, do you believe His promises and uphold His statutes? God’s silence is sometimes a test to see just how much you can trust Him, and just how much you are willing to remain faithful to Him even when you don’t know the way.

God also wants to know that you depend on Him, and that HE is God in your life. God wants to know that as His children, we have developed a dependence on Him and Him alone. We are His children. He so loved us that He gave His only begotten son to save us. God wants to be the only source that we run to, He wants to meet all of our needs, and He wants to know that we also recognize that He is the unfailing source, and our completion. Every now and then, that space and distance that you feel is a reminder, and it’s God’s way of saying “I love you, and I need you to remember that you need me, and that I am here to meet all of your needs. Your dependence doesn’t need to be in people, not in money, not in your careers or materialistic things, but in Me and Me alone. Jesus says in John 15:5 “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me, and I in Him, He it is that bears much fruit. For apart from Me, you can do NOTHING.” What Jesus is saying here is that He is our completion. And we forget this so many times. It’s easy to do. We get our careers off the ground, and we being to experience prosperity or abundant favor, and we begin to slip into that place where we feel as though we are the reason that we are where we are. But God wants you to remember no, you are not the reason for your progress. He says I am your strength in weakness, I am your light and the lamp unto your path, I am your sustenance and your provision. God is ALWAYS right there with us, but sometimes, He will stop speaking in order to remind you that you must always trust and depend on Him in all of your ways, and lean not on your own understanding.

And finally, are you spending time with God? There are times that we feel as though God has gone silent on us but the reality is that we have actually distanced ourselves, and stopped spending time with God. We get so wrapped up the trivial day to day happenings and comings and goings of this earthly life, that we forget God is there. We find time for everything and everyone else, we make relationships with people priority and hobbies and tv shows get all of our free time and attention, and then when we are going through something, or we feel convicted, we attempt to pencil God in. Instead of surrounding all that we do around God and making sure that He truly comes first above all else, we put everything else above God, and if we have any time left over after all of that, then we give God that time. But the Bible says in Proverbs 3:9-10 to “Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of ALL of your produce; So that your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.” What that means is, God honors our first fruits. First fruits is not all about finances. You are to honor God with ALL of your first fruits, meaning the best part of your day belongs to God, when you wake up in the morning He should get the first part of your day, just to spend time with you and hear from you. When you receive a blessing instead of running and telling everyone else first, God should get your first praises. Instead of putting the phone call with the person you’re dating first, take time to sit and just be with God and talk to Him and tell Him all about your day first. God wants to be first and receive all of the first and best parts of you because He loves you faithfully, and He yearns and longs to have a relationship with you, and for reciprocity.

The Bible says James 4:8 says “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” And sometimes, we feel distance or as if God is being silent in our lives, but the reality is that we have in fact drifted and grown distance from God, not the other way around. Are you drawing near to God? Are you actively seeking Him, making time to sit with Him and hear from Him? Because if you aren’t taking time to be near and draw near to God, how do you expect to feel the closeness that comes from a real personal relationship with God when you aren’t putting any of the time and effort into cultivating it? If you’re not taking the time to get close to God, how do you expect to feel close to God, even if He is close to you? And that’s the problem. Sometimes, God will be standing right beside you, speaking and trying to guide you, but it’s you who is pulling away, and the farther you get, the harder it is to hear His voice. You’ve got to be intentional and consistent in your relationship with God. You can’t give God 5 minutes of your time, expect that to be enough time for you to really hear from Him. You’ve got to MAKE time to sit and cut off every other interruption and distraction and simply give all of yourlsef and attention to God. This is how you get to know the voice and the character of God, which is what helps you to develop your trust and gives you the fortitude to stand on the promises of God so that in those times in your life when it seems like God is quiet, no matter the reason whether He’s testing you, whether He wants to remind you that He is your everything, or whether He’s trying to show you that you aren’t spending enough time with Him, you Know that you know that He is still there.

So if you feel that God has gone silent in your life, I invite you to examine your relationship with Him, your circumstances and what He could being doing through His silence, and your trust and fortitude in your relationship with God. I can promise you that no matter the reason for the silence, He’s always right there.

-Amanda Hill, Founder of Queendom Peak Ministries