Should we always avoid silence, assuming it means something–even God–is absent? Kay shares.
“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope” (Psalm 130:5).
As I was praying about what to share with you today, I kept leading back to the topic of silence. Through my studies for preparation I was reading the story of the birth of Christ. Yet, I kept being drawn to John the Baptist and the story of his birth instead.
What I discovered during my research, was that John’s birth began the end of 400 years of silence from God toward the Jews.
If that is indeed the case, was God absent those 400 years He was silent? What about today when we cry out to Him repeatedly, yet we hear nothing–is He ignoring us?
I remember when my husband and I first started facilitating in small groups at our church. We were both so worried about the absence of conversation if someone did not respond immediately after a question was posed that we would feel like we would have to “jump in” and start the conversation rolling again.
We soon learned that the silence was not only okay, but necessary. Silence gives us time to think, time to formulate our beliefs, time to seek Him and His Word and that is a good thing!
It may be that in God’s silences, He too is allowing time for us to think and to formulate our beliefs and in the meantime drawing us closer to Himself and to His Word. We can be grateful that He does not “jump in” and try to save us from the silences just in order to fill the “absence.”
We can be confident that God has a purpose even in His silence.
Prayer: Father, I pray that we resist the temptation to “jump in” and try to circumvent silence when You bring it into our lives. Help us to use that time to draw closer to You and to trust that You have a purpose and a plan even in those times when the silence is screaming out absence to us! In Jesus Name, Amen.
About the author:
Kay Davis lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband Ron. They have three awesome daughters and sons-in-law who have blessed them beyond measure with their eight precious grandchildren. For more of Kay’s writings you may visit her blog http://singingbirdcage.blogspot.com that is titled Songbird. She finds solace in writing and prays that God uses it to draw others to Himself.
Is there a time in your life that you would like to share that you can plainly see that God used a period of silence for your good and His glory?
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