“GOD!  SAY SOMETHING!  Where are YOU!!!”

Silence.  Where has he gone?  Did he abandon you? us?  Was He really ever there in the first place?

“WHERE ARE YOU GOD!?!”

And our prayers bounce against the ceiling of the room.  Nothing.  Nothing comes.  No heavenly hug.  No peaceful feeling.  No spiritual tug to say “I’m here child.”  Nothing.  The lush green fields of spiritual communion are gone leaving  the dryness of memories of what once was.

“God?  Are you there?  Do you hear?  Do you care what I’m going through?”

What kind of God leaves us in the middle of our battle?  What kind of God becomes the deaf blind mute we can’t understand and who can’t seem to communicate with us?

That’s how it feels, doesn’t it?  That’s how life appears to be when God goes silent.  But, it’s not the TRUTH.  Take a moment and think about this.

Have you thought maybe this period of God’s silence is a time of cleansing?  A time of growth?  A time of blessing?

“Wait a minute!  God’s silence a time of blessing?  No Way!  I HATE IT!  I want HIM not this cold desert of nothing!”

Really?

Why do we REALLY get scared when we can’t “experience” God?  What makes us wonder if all that we’ve been through and all that He’s shown us and told us was just a figment of our active imagination?  Could there be another reason?

Let me ask you this.

Are we really wanting Him or are we wanting the “feeling” of His closeness?  Are we truly searching for Him or for a warm fuzzy hug that says, “You’re safe.  I’ve got you.  Go on, you’re okay.”

We SAY we want Him, but our actions scream more like a toddler lost in a store wondering where their mommy has gone.

Could it be that God is letting us experience His silence, so we can be purged of our need for feelings to reassure us and instead begin to truly rely on our faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

We can’t please Him unless we have faith, but we can’t have faith unless we experience the pool of life without our emotional floaties on.  It’s not that He’s left us, He’s just letting us swim learning to trust He’s watching and waiting to assist us should we get in trouble.

Without God’s silence how will we be able to truly please Him if we are more in love with how He makes us feel than with the giver of the feeling?

When you are in the silence of God, remember this:

All Teachers are silent when their students are taking a test.

Be patient.  Continue on the path He showed you.  Trust in Him and thank Him for loving you enough to grow your faith so that you may bring Him more pleasure and joy.  Enjoy His silence and rejoice in the growing of your faith and the pruning of your feelings.

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Be still, and know that I am God.   Psalm 46:10

ONE morning while trying to print an important document, I became angry at my computer for freezing up. I shut it down and restarted it, but still the document would not print. I was furious, angrily praying to God for help. Why does this always happen, I thought, when I need to print something important? This document would help others, and I expected the process to go right because I was doing something for God. I became angrier when all efforts to remedy the problem failed.

At lunchtime, I again tried to print the file–but to no avail. Again I became angry. As I was fuming, I realized that the computer and the printer were not the main concern in this situation; the real issue was with my spiritual health. If I were spiritually healthy, I would not have let this situation bother me so much.  I began to see what was lacking in my life–prayer, Bible study, and quiet time with God. I decided to renew my daily 10-minute quiet time with God–just sitting down and being still, as Psalm 46:10 says to do. This practice helps me to be calm in the midst of a chaotic world and my fast-paced part in it. Now during a day when everything goes wrong, I know that if I pause to be still, God can and will quiet me.

“After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.” Matthew 14:23

It was a drama-packed day. Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, was dead because a drunken king chopped off his head. Jesus tried to get away to deal with the news, but crowds of people called his name.

 Heal me! Feed me!

 He healed the sick. He fed over 5,000 people with a few fish and loaves of bread. These miracles caused the crowd to press in closer, to shout louder and to demand more from Him. It also caused conflict.

 He’s our new king!

No; he’s dangerous; kill him!

 Sometimes life gets complex. Many times we just keep on going even though we are pulled between the demands of the people we love – Feed me! Love me! – with those feelings festering just under the surface.  But what happens when you arrive at ground zero emotionally because of loss or pain or fatigue?  What did Jesus do? When His day was finally done, Jesus hiked into the mountains to pray. He needed strength. He needed guidance. He needed to be refreshed spiritually and physically. Jesus settled in to talk to His father.  

I’ll be honest. When I’m at that place, the temptation is to wrap up in my favorite blanket, turn on a mindless TV show, and veg.  But what waits for me in that alone place with God?  He knows us better than anyone else. He’s willing to carry our burdens, soothe our hearts, and that prayer time becomes a shelter, an oasis where we are revived.  At that point it’s not about the time we spend, or even the words that we say, but what we discover when we settle in.  Prayer becomes our heavenly GPS system.  An earthly GPS system contains atomic clocks that are accurate to a billionth of a second!  No matter where you are, it can find your location and give you direction.  Think about this: The God of the Universe is greater than any earthly GPS. God knows where you are, where you are headed emotionally, and how to recalculate so that you can find your way back to sanity, peace, and even to joy.

 Dear Jesus, You know what it is to be emotionally and physically spent. You know what it is to hurt, to grieve, to long for quiet and peace and healing. Thank You that You understand how I feel, and that You carry my burden when it’s too big for me to carry alone. I adore You.  In Your Name, Amen.

“So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.'”  Genesis 22:14

Have you ever been in a situation so desperate that it looked hopeless?  Have you ever sat at the kitchen table wondering how you were going to pay the electric bill?  Have you ever stood at a door that’s been slammed in your face by an angry teenager and despaired at ever having a relationship with him again?  Have you ever had your heart broken so deeply that you wondered if you would ever feel whole again? 

Sadly, we live in a broken world where desperate situations happen every day.  I know someone reading this devotion is wondering how she will make it through the day because her situation looks hopeless.  If that is you, I encourage you to keep reading.  I believe God has a message of hope for you today.  That message is found in the Bible, in the story of a man who was dealing with his own desperate situation.  His name was Abraham and he faced the greatest testing of his life.  After longing for a son for many years, God finally gave Abraham a boy, whom he named Isaac.  Abraham never imagined God would test his faith by asking him to sacrifice his son.  But it happened.  It had to have been the darkest day of Abraham’s life as he trudged up the mountain, with firewood strapped to his son’s back.  Every step took Abraham closer to what he believed to be the sad ending of a hopeless situation – the death of his son.  Yet in spite of his sorrow, Abraham trusted God. His heart wasn’t soaring with joy.  He wasn’t dancing up the mountain.  But he put one foot in front of the other.  Walking through the darkness of the situation; obeying His God’s commands.  Unbeknownst to Abraham, something else was walking up that mountain.  Quietly.  Out of sight.  On the other side of the mountain.  Something else was putting one foot in front of the other.  Only Abraham couldn’t see it.  For every step Abraham took, a ram on the other side of the mountain took a step.  All Abraham saw that day was his solitary journey of pain.  As he got closer to the top of the mountain, his dread must have increased.  I wonder if he asked himself any questions.  I would have.  I would have wondered why hadn’t God intervened?  Why hadn’t God stopped this testing?  Couldn’t God see that Abraham was a man of faith? Why test him in this way?  But there was no answer.  There was no voice from heaven.  And so Abraham kept obeying his God’s command.  He put Isaac on an altar and prepared to sacrifice his one and only son.  And just at that very moment, at the very last second, when it looked like the end had come, God spoke, stopping the sacrifice.  Abraham looked up and there caught in the thicket was a ram.  Abraham took his son off the altar, replaced him with the ram, and offered the sacrifice to God.  Abraham named that place “Yahweh-Yireh” or “The Lord Will Provide.”  And the story was written down for generations of God-followers to read.  It was written so that you and I today would read it as we face our own hopeless situations.  It was captured in print so that you and I would know that God is already planning for our provision.  We don’t see it.  We don’t hear it.  But we can trust that our God is at work.  On your behalf, and on mine. 

 I choose to trust God today.  A ram is on the way.

Dear Lord, You know how desperate I am today. You know that my faith has wavered.  Although I want to trust You, I’m having trouble doing so.  I ask for Your intervention in my situation, and for an increase of my faith while I wait.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Paul wrote, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”   Philippians 3:13-14

One of my favorite Bible stories recounts Jacob wrestling with God. I like it because it reminds me of life’s dark moments when my dreams crumble around me and I am down in the dirt, wrestling with God. At times like these I have asked myself, What good can possibly come from this? Jacob’s story answers that question. Jacob came away from his battle with a new name, Israel, because he had struggled with God and with humans and had overcome. (See Gen. 32:28.) When we wrestle with God, we too become strengthened to overcome the trials ahead.  Like Jacob, we may come away with a limp or a scar. But often our scars can remind us to reach out to those who need the good news of hope in the midst of their own struggles.  The “sun rose upon [Jacob]” (Gen. 32:31) as he moved on to deal with old struggles in a new way. Whatever our struggles may be, God helps us to leave yesterday’s trials behind and to press on in hope toward tomorrow.

Jesus had compassion on [the two blind men] and touched their eyes. Matthew 20:34

Years ago, while in training to be a Boy Scout camp counselor, I had to go rock climbing — blindfolded. The height alone petrified me, but the thought of attempting to climb without being able to see turned my stomach into cement. I felt desperate and was utterly dependent on the others. I slipped. Reaching up, I couldn’t grasp the next handhold. Dangling blind from the side of a cliff, I didn’t care if people knew that I was vulnerable and couldn’t make it alone. Eve though secured by ropes I felt terrified that I was about to fall. Then I heard the deep, confident voice of my teammate cutting through my fear, giving me the directions I needed to find the handhold.

Much like me in my situation, the only thing that the two blind men on the road to Jericho could “see” was their problem, their helplessness. Desperate, they only shouted louder when the crowd tried to quiet them. Just as I had to tune out everything but my teammate’s voice, the blind men had to focus on Jesus and not let the condemning voices or their helpless state deter them.  When the blind men ignored the crowd and focused on Jesus, he heard and responded. Their turning to him in complete vulnerability freed God to work. In the same way, when we call out in our need, God will hear us and respond to our cry.

Dear God, help us to see our weakness, to center on your voice above the noise of the crowd, and to completely depend on you. Amen.

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet… seek me daily and delight to know my ways…” Isaiah 58:1-2

When I could I used to take daily walks. They serve as the “required 30 minutes of daily exercise” my doctor advised.  Yet they were much more than that — they are also spiritual exercise for me.

Stepping out of my house, I look up and ask Jesus to come along with me. Then, for 30 minutes I tell Him everything I think He should know.  Sometimes I praise Him for Who He is and what He has done. But other times I would lay out a litany of things gone wrong.

 I reminded Him about my friends who have asked that I pray for them.

 I reminded Him that I still have unanswered prayers.

 I begged Him to answer various requests.

 I talked a lot.

 I prayed for my marriage.

 I discussed my son.

 On and on my feet and mouth went on.

One day in a state of frustration and confusion, I felt that I had no control over a certain situation in my family. I figured I could find the answers, and longed to step in and somehow fix the thing.

Whew – did God get an earful during that walk!

I stepped out my door looked up and said, “Come on Jesus, let’s go. The sooner I solve this, the better I’m going to feel. I have to deal with this now!”  By the time I reached the corner I had laid out the basics of the situation.  The issue?  My 27 year old marriage and it’s ending.  I explained the problem and poured out my heart.

“God, should I…?”

“Do You think if I …?”

 “What if she…?”

 “I think I’ll call. Better yet, I think I’ll go for a visit.”

On and on my feet, mouth and mind went.

I turned over every stone. Detailed each circumstance. Approached the problem from different angles, and suggested a variety of solutions.  Then, after an exhausting tirade, I had nothing more to say!  Opening my mouth to continue, nothing came forth. So I just walked on in silence.  About a block from my house, I felt God speak to my heart: “The two shall become one.” Whoa. I stopped in my tracks.  And then I heard three more words, which were almost identical to something God says in His Word: “Leave and cleave.”

“You’re right; Lord. I need to let her figure this out. And with Your help, she will.” 

Is there a situation you are facing that has made you weary? Are you at a point where you have nothing more to say? If so, you are not alone. Let’s pray today that our words will cease so that we can make room in our hearts and thoughts to hear His.

Father God, forgive me for being so quick to tell You how my life should progress. Forgive me for thinking I should be in charge of others’ lives. Thank You for Your Word that reminds me You are involved in the lives of Your children. Thank You for caring enough to speak to me even when I take so little time to listen. Teach me to trust You, in Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Isaiah  53:3

No one is exempt from suffering. It’s just a matter of when and how. But no other area of life causes us to cry out to God like suffering does. When we are in the midst of unbearable circumstances, it can seem like God is so far away. Yet, he is usually the first person we call on to relieve us from the hurt and the pain.

While suffering commonly causes us to look for someone greater, it can also cause us to retreat. We often withdraw from others and try to handle our suffering in isolation. But God never intended for us to go through that alone. God cares for us so much that he paid the ultimate price just so he could be here for us and help us work through our pain.

You may be experiencing physical or emotional pain right now. But nothing compares to the ultimate suffering that Jesus experienced on the cross. Jesus experienced pain like none of us can imagine. He actually became sin and had to endure being separated from God.

Jesus knows first-hand what it is like to suffer alone. And he does not want you to have to experience that kind of pain. He overcame death so that we will never have to be separated from God. If you are going through some type of despair, talk to Jesus. Speak honestly with him and allow him to heal you from the inside out.

Lord, thank you for enduring the ultimate suffering so that I don’t have to suffer alone. I know that there is no pain that I can experience that you can’t heal. I find comfort in the fact that you are always there whenever I need you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really isthe Savior of the world.   John 4:42

When we hear stories of how other people’s relationship with God helped them overcome adversity, it empowers us to persevere through our difficulties. And when God personally helps us to overcome our struggles, it causes our faith in him to be even stronger.

There is nothing like experiencing God first-hand in our lives. It is in those times when God speaks clearly and directly to us that we truly understand his love and faithfulness.  Maybe you know someone who has yet to discover the great benefits of a life yielded to the Savior. Or, you may have heard others talk about the awesome, life-changing power of Jesus Christ but have never experienced it for yourself. Take some time right now to invite him into your life.

Knowing Christ personally will literally transform you from the inside out. If you have a personal relationship with him, share your story with someone who doesn’t yet know the Savior, and encourage them to experience God first-hand. Let your life serve as a bold reminder that Christ really is the Light of the world so that others can be brought out of the darkness and have a new, brighter life with Jesus.

Lord, your lessons of love and kindness have taught me what I need to do to live a life that is pleasing to you. As I reflect on Jesus’ teachings today, help me to put your words into action. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.  Mark 6:3

There is no doubt that Jesus was a phenomenal teacher. But sometimes it’s overlooked that Jesus had a non-ministry job as well. He was a carpenter, working in the rough and tough world of construction.

Jesus spent a great deal of time in the workplace, and people were always watching him. Many tried to trip him up, and they would even get angry when he wouldn’t buckle under the pressure. But Jesus was always able to handle the stress of the workplace without compromising his character.

Isn’t it amazing how a person can be a compromising employee one minute and an angelic church attendee the next? Unlike Jesus, a lot of us cannot resist the urge to compartmentalize our lives. We pull into the parking lot at work and leave our biblical principles in the car. Meanwhile, we take part in unethical decisions and compromising choices, thinking that it is somehow unrelated to our spiritual relationship.

We think that we can have our faith world in one corner and our work world in another corner. We divide our lives into segments and then make choices in one area and think that it doesn’t affect the other areas in our life. But God never intended for our lives to be fragmented. Life only works when we take our faith with us everywhere we go, so that no matter what, we can represent the good character of Christ.

Lord, thank you for your example of integrity. There will always be times when I will be pressured to compartmentalize my life, but I pray that you will remind me of Jesus’ example and help me to live out my faith in all areas of life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.