Today I’m pleased to have a guest poster, Nannette Elkins from Hope in the Healing. She’s talking about those times we go through when it’s hard to hear from God or He feels silent in our lives.
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Surely there have been times in your life that you have asked the question of the ages: Why is God silent?
Haven’t we all been there? Maybe we have even lived there for a time? It isn’t easy. Can we say it is just plain difficult?
I am not one of those that is fortunate enough to hear the Lord speak in an audible voice to me every morning and say, “Good morning dear child, time to get up Sweet Daughter of Mine! Here is what I have planned for your today…” But doesn’t it seem like from so many posts on social media, that everybody and their grandmother hears from God in the smallest of details? “God spoke to me and told me to pull into this parking space and it fits my car perfectly, Praise God!”
Seriously, I am not making light of hearing from the Lord. I want us to hear from HIM! I am just sharing to let you know that it is okay if you do not hear the audible voice of God on a daily basis. Can I get an “Amen?”
Maybe on the days when there is silence, it is a time for trusting? Or, maybe better still, He is telling us that is what trust IS?
Do you remember the disciple, Thomas? Poor Thomas is always getting picked on as the doubter. He said he wouldn’t believe that Jesus was alive unless he could see the nail marks in his hands and put his hand in his side. But Jesus said to him,
Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. – John 20:29 NIV
Compare it to a marriage relationship. If your spouse is away on a trip, are you panicked that they don’t love you anymore? You can’t feel them next to you, you can’t see or hear them and you can’t talk to them if they are busy or in meetings. Does that mean that just because they are “silent” that their love means nothing any longer? Of course it doesn’t! “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
Would it not be wonderful to think that the Lord is preparing us in the silence, to teach us to long for Him? Then, of course, we also want to be sure that there is not something keeping us from hearing from the Lord.
If there is sin, repent.
If there is anger, get rid of it.
If there is someone you need to forgive, go do it.
Clean up the heart! Draw nigh to Him and He will draw nigh to you. His Word promises that. Can we trust God even when we don’t hear from Him? When we don’t feel Him every day? Can we keep on loving Him, serving Him, telling others about Him, just because we love Him, not because He owes us anything in return?
C.S. Lewis said, “Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.” He never changes, He is always the same.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8
You can trust Him, even in the silence.
Nannette has served in various ministry positions over the last 27 years, most recently as a pastor’s wife and missionary to Eastern Europe serving in the countries of Estonia and Latvia. An aspiring writer, speaker, teacher and editor, she was kicked out of her comfort zone by the Lord and enjoys encouraging others through her blog, Hope in the Healing and monthly at Internet Café Devotions. She travels with her husband as the North America Directors for Revival By Design, teaching church growth seminars from a Bible-based blueprint for revival. She has been attached to The Sweetheart, Douglas, for 34 years and is happiest when the joys of her life, Kyle, Rachel, Kristopher and Korey Ross, are all gathered around her table.
Sharing with A Proverbs 31 Wife, The Modest Mom, The Prairie Homestead, Time Warp Wife, Growing Home, Cornerstone Confessions, Raising Homemakers, We Are That Family, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Walking Redeemed, Raising Arrows, Graced Simplicity, Raising Mighty Arrows, and Happy and Blessed Home.pt:
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