can you hear the silence speak?
There have been seasons in my life when I felt I couldn’t ‘hear’ God. It felt like he was far, far away. I felt abandoned. I felt forsaken. There have been different reasons for those seasons of silence.
Once, I was wanting God to move on my behalf, but he was waiting for me to take a step of faith toward him first. He was asking me to do a hard thing, but I wrestled and argued with him. I didn’t want to listen so I didn’t. I refused to listen. If we choose not to listen to someone we eventually stop hearing them. They become silent to us.
Another time I was bound up with anger because a prayer I had prayed had gone ignored. At that time I thought that if I ticked all the Christian ‘to-do’ boxes, I had a guaranteed ‘yes’ to my heart’s cry. This was not the case. I learned that the Christian ‘to-do’ boxes have a completely different purpose for our lives and do not include manipulating God to do as I wish.
Disobedience. Sin. Anger. These things have brought me through seasons when I believed that God had gone silent when in reality it was I who had plugged my ears. I was like the little child who clapped her hands over her ears and hummed real loud to drown out what she doesn’t want to hear. I am the one who had stepped away from his safety and refuge in my own grown up version of a temper tantrum.
But I have learned there is a different kind of silence. The kind of silence where God is calling me to sit quietly in his presence and let himself flow over me and into my spirit. The kind of silence that is comforting and refreshing.
In those moments, I am given a choice. In that kind of silence I have an option of trusting him or trusting myself and what I think I know is best. It’s usually in those kind of silent moments that I know that if I step into a deeper trust with him that I will soon hear him loud and clear.
I need to do two things: trust him and dive deep into his word. I am a huge fan of the Old Testament. I love both the Old and the New, but I learn so much about my human frailty and God’s great big deep love for me in the Old Testament.
I read about the Israelites and I learn how they dealt with silence and how God dealt with them….
The Red Sea was an insurmountable obstacle. As the Isrealites looked at the Red Sea before them and Pharoah’s army behind them, they determined it was better for them to live as slaves than to die free.
God split the sea for them to walk across on on dry ground.
While they waited for Moses to come down the mountain, they turned to Aaron and their own logic, and created a god because Moses was taking too long on that mountain.
God was instructing Moses on the way of life for His people.
Mankind is generally uncomfortable with silence. Mankind says silence needs to be filled. It is tempting to explain away the silence rather than pressing into the silence.
What if the silence became our cue to tuck in closer to him? What if we asked for faith to believe that He is working and moving in ways that we cannot see? Will you tuck in close and trust?
God could be about ready to split the sea for you. He could be about ready to speak loud and clear. God could be doing a mighty act of deliverance. He could be singing songs over you. He could be calling you deeper into him.
Can you listen for the silence to speak?
do you want a hiding place?
I sometimes want to hide.
But my attempts fail. If I am not visible to my lovelies, then their voice seeks me out: ‘Mom?’ Mo-o-o-mmm?’ ‘Where are you?‘ Someday I might be able to go to the bathroom without having to announce my plans. Maybe someday I won’t have to check in with someone (probably not).
My favorite hideaway that I visit in my day dreams involves mountains and a lake and a small cabin at water’s edge. It is green. It smells of the northwest. I have my coffee in one hand, a stack of books in the other and the sound of birds filling my ears. My heart sighs and I am at peace.
Then I wake to reality. I may not be able to physically hide, but I am learning where I can hide myself.
‘You are my hiding place, you will protect me from trouble, you surround me with songs of deliverance.’ Psalm 32 :7
What does hiding in the Lord look like?
I think of hiding places as being calm and still and secret, but how does this work in my everyday life? My everyday life is not calm, still and secret. It’s messy and noisy and involves a lot of people. In my everyday life, I am tired. In my everyday life, I sometimes forget to pay attention to life as it’s passing by.
How in the world do I tuck myself into Jesus while at the same time reaching out and ministering to my family? Practically speaking I cannot literally hide. I could tell my lovelies that we are going to play hide and forget the seek, but that won’t work. The seeking is where the fun is! There are too many things that require my attention and time. So what does hiding in Jesus look like?
It must, it needs to be a spiritual act. We live on two planes. What our spirits are engaged in and what our physical selves are doing. The soul – our mind, will, and emotions – is the tie between the two parts.
What are the thoughts running through my mind? The verses in 2 Cor. 10: 3-5 instruct me to take every thought captive and bring it under the authority of Jesus. My spirit must be engaged with what my soul is thinking and feeling.
Living in awareness of where our thoughts take us is one key to staying hidden in Christ.
So I tell myself: Think about Christ. Think about his love and promises. Practice living peace, love, joy, patience, goodness, self-control, kindness, faithfulness and gentleness.
Live aware.
The fight between lies and truth take place in the battlefield of my mind. The renegade thoughts attempt to disrupt the peace of God in my heart and to push me out of the hiding place. The truth of who Christ is and who I am and whose I am, keep me in the hiding place. Could taking my thoughts captive be another way of saying that I am hidden in Christ?
Hiding places bring to mind small, dark, narrow places, but really, what if, by just changing our mindset of what hiding places are, we find the spacious place of rest in Jesus?
He is light and in him there is no darkness. So, imagine his hiding place as being filled with the most wonderful, warm light and everywhere else is darkness. Where would you rather be?
In the light.
The world outside of the light is dark and scary and it is hard to find the way. That place, the darkness, is just a step away from the light. One step and I can be plunged into the darkness. One step back and I find the light of his hiding place.
He is my hiding place. He is my protector. My anxious heart is soothed by songs of deliverance. And I have found my hiding place in Him.
‘You are my hiding place, you protect me from trouble, you surround me with songs of deliverance’.
May we rest in him and hide ourself in the light of his goodness and trust.
what happens when God is silent?
Silence gives me anxiety.
I find silence disconcerting. If silence lingers I think of a way to fill it. If silence lingers I wonder if I have done something wrong. If silence is accompanied by scowls, I grow insecure.
You see, if I can keep the conversation rolling long enough and make you laugh hard enough, then maybe, just maybe, you won’t see me and disapprove.
Somewhere along the way, I decided it was my job to make everyone around me happy by being who they wanted me to be or who I thought they wanted me to be. The problem with that? When things grow silent my first impulse is to take the blame for some nameless unknown offense. I offer myself up as a scapegoat because there must be something inherently wrong with me, right?
But when God is silent?
I freak.
Until I think about hiding places.
A really good hiding place is pretty quiet. It’s still. It’s silent. It’s a good kind of silent. The kind of silence that breathes.
Unless you’re scared. Then it’s not. But if it’s safe? Then it’s the best kind of quiet.
Psalm 27:5 ‘For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.’
God is my safe place. He is my hiding place. It’s okay to hide from trouble and the best kind of hiding is in the safest of places and the safest of places are the quietest of places. What if God is silent not because he is angry, but because he is keeping me safe?
Then the silence becomes something good and beautiful. It becomes something to be thankful for.
What if silence became an opportunity to rest in the One who holds me close to his heart and hides me within himself?
When God is silent I have an opportunity to learn to wait. I learn to be still. I trust that he is working in my circumstance and in me.
What if in the silence we learn to wait on him? What if in the silence we learn to be still? What if in the silence we learn to let him work and stop striving for solutions? What if we viewed God’s silence as an opportunity to trust him more?
I am learning to be okay with sitting quietly with someone. I am learning to enjoy another’s presence without the need for words. (this is hard!) I am also learning to enjoy the sweet comradery of God’s presence without the need for words. And the beautiful thing? If I am silent I find that God is not really silent, he is just waiting for me to hush up so he can speak. It’s in those still, silent places that I can hear his whispers reaching my frantic heart and I hear him clearly.
Silence doesn’t have to be scary. It doesn’t have to mean disapproval. Sometimes silence a really, really good thing to embrace. Silence reminds me to be still.
Do I still freak out when God is silent? A little. But now I do a few things:
- I don’t automatically assume that I am inherently wrong.
- I open myself up to the Holy Spirit and his work.
- I wait patiently and trust his heart.
What happens the next time God is silent? I am going to be still, hush up, and listen. I just might hear his whisper.
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