There are so many great encounters we have with God—those moments when his power is evident, prayers are answered, and he wins our trust. Those are all the encounters many of us think of and talk about, but a lot of times we forget to talk about the moments when God is silent. These are those times that prayers aren’t being answered, trials and difficulties come, and when drawing near to God is hard. Basically God just feels absent in our lives.
While currently feeling like God is distant in my life, I was reminded of some advice I gave one of the girls I disciple: just because we don’t feel God it doesn’t mean he isn’t there because he promises us that he is always with us (Joshua 1:9). What a great reminder that what we experience as God’s absence or distance or silence is how we perceive it. It’s how at some point it looks and feels but it isn’t how it actually is.
In the book of Job, God was never really absent or distant to Job, but it was rather how Job perceived it. When we feel forsaken or that God just doesn’t seem near, it is important to remember that God isn’t a feeling and that we are called to trust his promises more than the perception (Hebrews 13:5).
Why silence though? Why does it need to feel or be perceived as silence? Jon Bloom posed these questions to explain God’s perceived silence:
▪ Why is it that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” but “familiarity breeds contempt”?
▪ Why is water so much more refreshing when we’re really thirsty?
▪ Why am I almost never satisfied with what I have, but always longing for more?
▪ Why can the thought of being denied a desire for marriage or children or freedom or some other dream create in us a desperation we previously didn’t have?
▪ Why is the pursuit of earthly achievement often more enjoyable than the achievement itself?
▪ Why do deprivation, adversity, scarcity, and suffering often produce the best character qualities in us while prosperity, ease, and abundance often produce the worst. (http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/when-god-seems...)
Bloom goes on to address these questions by realizing that "Deprivation draws out desire. Absence heightens desire. And the more heightened the desire, the greater its satisfaction will be. It is the mourning that will know the joy of comfort (Matthew 5:4). It is the hungry and thirsty that will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6). Longing makes us ask, emptiness makes us seek, and silence makes us knock (Luke 11:9)." While analyzing Bloom's conclusions, it is easy to see that while the perceived silence and absence of God is hard, it is in these moments that we grow as individuals and become the men and women God has called us to become.
So during the moments that you feel God is silent or distant in your life, just remember that is your perception. You have to continually draw yourself back to his promises and trust them more than the perception. We serve a God much bigger than feelings and perceptions—we serve a God full of promises and promises that he keeps (Deuteronomy 7:9).
