When God Is Silent

Unlike previous Easter seasons, this one has been filled with quiet hours and withdrawn voices. Where I usually hear the voice of God prominently through Scripture reading and prayer, it seems that the more I partake in such activities, the more silence that resounds. 

With prayers that seem to be bouncing off the ceilings, I question what in the world I am doing with my life at this very moment. Anxiety surfaces, making me question every minute detail of my life. 

Why can’t I hear God?

Is something wrong with me?

Am I in sin that I have been too prideful to realize?

Are my pleas even reaching the gates of Heaven?

Will I ever learn how to properly ‘adult”?

Will I ever be normal again?

When will my hormones leave me alone?

Yet as I sit here on a brisk and chilly Saturday, April morning, I am reminded of what day it is. 

The day after Jesus’ death and crucifixion on the cross, the people of His time heard silence too. I wonder how many asked, “Lord, are you going to come back as you promised?” I ponder how many still small voices and fists pounding the floor yelled, “Jesus, when are you coming back?” My anxiety finds rest knowing that I’m not the only one who has heard stillness for an answer. 

Because on Holy Saturday, something big is coming Sunday. And when God is silent, that doesn’t mean God isn’t listening, nor does it mean He won’t answer. When God is silent, that doesn’t mean He isn’t there. When God is silent, that doesn’t mean He is absent from every trivial affair you face. 

No, when God is silent, that means He is up to something far more significant than we humans could ever comprehend or fathom. “He is working in ways we cannot see and cannot know, but He has not left,” says speaker Luke Lezon. 

Sunday is coming, friends, so it’s okay if it’s silent on Saturday because something that will far surpass our eyes and ears is coming back tomorrow. 

“The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:5-6, NIV). 

Saturday may be silent, but our breakthrough is coming. Fear not, do not mistake his lack of words for absence, for He has not and will not ever leave or forsake us. 

As Jesus breathed His last on the cross, He said, “It is finished,” trusting that in the silence of His grave, God would not leave Him there but raise Him to righteous holiness (John 19:30). 

Today, know that even when the day between Friday and Sunday is still, His presence is still found.

In your soundlessness, remember to embody Jesus. The same Jesus whose Father abandoned His voice from His Son to save and rescue you. The same Jesus that chose meek humbleness so that someday you could receive and hear the voice crying out to you that Salvation belongs to all who believe (Acts 16:31).  

“David said about him: ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence'” (Acts 2:25-28, NIV).

Agape, Amber