Do you feel that God is silent?

Charity Faith Love Podcast: Season 1 Episode 3

Today I want to talk about silence. Specifically, when we think God is silent with us or at least what we interpret it as: “he isn’t listening to us” or “seems to be ignoring us”.

Now there are good times of silence for when we need to just like really sit and reflex on things on our own. But most of us can agree that we do not like when there is silence, or we feel there is no response no matter how hard we try.

I mean there has been times I have been struggling and I am literally like yelling at God telling him I need answers or help with what I am going through, and it would be like a cricket in the background. I would pray over and over for him to just give me an answer, but I felt like I wouldn’t receive any.

I would even be like, “God, I don’t need you to even solve the whole thing, just like tell me yes or no to this one tiny part and I won’t bother you anymore.” But we all know that’s a lie because the next day you better believe I was back with something else. I really feel like sometimes God just looks at me with that mom look I give me kids. Just thinking, “really”?

I do like to ask God to help me through something or make something happen for me, and sometimes I catch myself where I don’t even ask him for HIS plan for my life. I should be following scripture like in Matthew 6:10 where it says, “YOUR will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” you see it specifically says “GODS WILL, not ours… yet here I am, just over here demanding answers and expecting him to follow me and my plan.

I have had to learn, mostly the hard way, that’s not how God works at all. No matter what you think is best or if you think you have it all figured out it does not mean your way is better. Thankfully God is gracious enough not to listen to us if it’s not for our or his good.

So for today’s discussion, I want to talk about the other side of it, meaning maybe God isn’t silent, maybe we are not listening to him or actually doing what he’s called us to do.

What do I mean? let’s evaluate the whole “God is silent thing”.  

One of my favorite men in the Bible Abraham, he used to be called Abram so in the scripture I may refer to him by that name. God changed his name later through scripture. We are going to start in Genesis where we meet Abraham.

Genesis 11 is where we meet Abraham. The writer is going through the lineage of a bunch of people’s names that I cannot pronounce. So we meet Abraham and his wife Sarai. I want to point out in Genesis 11:30 it specifically says Sarai cannot have children. So just keep that tid bit in the back of your mind. Now, if we go to chapter 12 its God talking to him and he literally says, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house and go to a place I will show you.” God just told him to leave everything he knows and go to an unknown location. He’s like no big deal… Pack up and go bro.

Now, he does tell him he is going to make him a great nation and bless him in huge amounts. But I am still stuck on the fact that he just told him to pack up and go. I don’t know if I could be so obedient. I would have so many questions, like I need to know how much to pack. Do I bring snacks? I mean obviously God didn’t ask me this because He would probably be so annoyed with my 100 questions.

But, what does Abraham do?  He goes without question or hesitation. This is where we get to learn he was 75 years old. I feel like that’s a huge trip to ask of an older man. But Abraham brought his wife, nephew and brought their possessions. He does his traveling and goes to the land God told him to, there is a lot of different things happening that is too much to go in detail so for the sake of today, let’s just jump to chapter 15. God and Abraham are talking, and God tells him he will have his own child and he will have as much family as he can count the stars. In my head, Abraham is this much older man that shouldn’t be able to have kids and now God is going to just let him start reproducing…? even Abraham and Sarai felt the same way. God makes a covenant or basically an agreement with him later promising him that he will give him children.

Now, before I weird you out with this next part, remember this is thousands of years ago and they did things much different than us. So, with that being said, Sarai had a maid or servant you can call it, who was capable of having children and we remember Sarai cannot. So, what does Sarai do, tell Abraham to just have a baby with the maid since it seems impossible for herself to be able to. So of course, Abraham does as his wife wishes, not thinking of the fact that him and God are like best buds and God already told him that he would have kids when God had planned it. I feel like he forgot God literally has been having normal conversations with him and made an agreement with him. He made a whole covenant with him about this kid thing. But I guess Abraham was just trying to be a good husband and do what his wife said.

But again, did God say they would have a baby with the maid? No. God was very clear when he said Abraham and Sarah would have a child of their own.

Read this carefully now, this is the whole point I am trying to get across.

Genesis 16:16 says, “Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar birthed Ishmael to Abram.

This is the next verse:

Genesis 17:1-2 says, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Do you notice the gap there with his age? From the time they had Ishmael to the time that God spoke to him again was 13 years… 13. The child was a teenager before God talked to Abraham again. Immediately after that, God changed his name to officially Abraham. This man was one that was talking to God all the time and would basically sit at the picnic table with him having normal conversations, they made an agreement, and like angels would come to him with messages from God. They had a very big and established relationship. But Abraham chose to take matters into his own hands and he and his wife chose to have a son with the maid instead of being patient and waiting for God.

If you feel like God is far away or not talking to you at this time, I want you to think about what you’re putting into the relationship first before getting upset at Him. Sure, you might think you’re doing things right, but where is your heart really at? Abraham was still doing some things for God, but he made a choice and that had consequences. His consequence was not getting to hear from God for 13 years straight. He was told he would have a son, so he chose to do it his way, now he gets complete silence. If I was him, I would have been terrified and felt so lonely not being able to get a response or even a meeting with God. After that time passes, God came back and told Abraham again and told him that he would have a son.

See, God tells us things more than we realize, we are the ones choosing not to hear Him or wait for His timing. We try to blame Him and say He isn’t listening to us or He’s giving us the silent treatment. Which, his silence may be true if we are not following the correct path, he told us to go on. I understand things seem unfair and it makes us uncomfortable at time, but don’t you think Abraham and Sarah thought it was crazy to be having a baby in their 100’s? and guess what, they still did.

The point I’m trying to make is that you shouldn’t assume God has left you or is silent in your most desperate times. He is always working things out for HIS timeline and not ours. He never left us and doesn’t plan to start now. He might just be sitting back waiting for you to decide if you’re going to listen the next time, he calls you to do something. I can relate to Abraham and Sarah, I am so impatient, I want things to happen immediately for myself, and it’s so hard for me to just wait and let God do his thing. Do you feel like you’re the same way?

So, I challenge you to sit and listen, and once he tells you what you need to do, actually do it the way he said. I know it may be uncomfortable or seem like it’s a lot wait, but remember we are supposed to have a relationship with God, and relationships go both ways. We cannot expect God to just hand us things right away without seeking him first and being obedient. So just remember, have patients, and sit back and listen. Try to have an open mind and listen to what God might be trying to tell you and hopefully you won’t have to wait until 100 years old for God to give you what you are wanting.

Much Love,
Charity