How to Listen for God in the Silence {Part 2}

(read part one here.)

I can see the sisters grabbing each others hands. I can see the tears, streaming down the cheeks. I can see their weary bodies from caring for their sick brother break under the weight of grief, and begging the God of their Savior to come to them. They begged for Jesus to come, but He stayed two more days.

Mary and Martha endured two days of silence while their brother Lazarus was ill. 48 hours of silence. 48 hours of sorrow and pain and heartache. Two days they wept with no hope and only grief to soothe their hearts. God was going to let Lazarus die. Even if the sisters had been told that, or if they had known it was coming: they still had to endure a period of silence.

Sometimes as Christians we too must face moments of silence from God. We pray, beg, and seek in earnest from God. We wrestle with Him as Jacob did: give us a blessing! We cry. Only we are met with nothing  more questions. In the questions, I think we can found answers. Jesus silence didn’t mean He wasn’t answering.

I have so many questions about my life. I have so many unknowns. Why did certain people leave the field? Where will my children go to college? Why does this person get sick? Why did her baby die? Will my sisters come down to visit us in Honduras?

So many unspoken questions I can’t even write. Private questions, that seem hard and venerable. But fear asks these questions and I don’t think they are wrong. God can handle my questions. God can handle them because He knows the answers. He knows when I can handle the answers too. He knows when to give me answers and when to keep silent.

So when we are afraid, I can come to God in the silence with all of my questions. I can lay them out and hand them over to Him.

Here. Like an offering. A sacrifice of my will. Of my life and surrendering.

I can lay them before Him, in my prayer journal, or say them aloud. God will hear them, and He is answering. Silence is still an answer. And I can still keep asking God the questions. I can come to him in humility and repentance and faith – believing He will meet me here, in the middle of my questions.

God can handle my questions in the silence. He can handle it because He is in the Whisper. When Job had questions, God did not answer them, He only respond with who He was and is. God can answer our questions, and although we think He is silent, and the Spirit feels invisible some days: the truth is: God is never completely silent. The whisper is there and the whisper is found in the pages of His word.

So how do we listen to God?

We take these four steps:

1. Be Still.

2. Come to Him in prayer.

3. Ask the questions.

4. Read His Word.

5. Repeat.

He might not answer us with voices from heaven, or even quiet whispers in our spirit – at least not right away. His timing is not ours. But He will always meet us in the pages of Scripture – I guarantee, from someone who has sought Him time and time again, He is there. He is here:

But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Duet. 4:29

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