(Photo by Selma Komisky)

He’s in the Waiting

By Kyle Jane Heskett

Do you know what it is like when God seems silent? Maybe you feel like He’s not answering your prayers or that He doesn’t care about you. So you keep waiting for God to move or you give up altogether. I believe one of the biggest traps we fall into when God is silent toward us is to think that in His silence, He is not doing anything, and that in seasons of waiting for Him to speak up, we shouldn’t have to do anything.

The truth is that silence is good. When God was silent to the Israelites for 400 years, He was preparing the way for the coming of Jesus, their Savior. When Jesus stayed away for two whole days after Mary and Martha begged Him to heal Lazarus, He allowed Lazarus to die. But then He raised Him from the dead, giving witness to His unlimited power (John 11). When He died on the cross, the disciples wanted an answer as to why and then three days later Jesus rose from the dead. He conquered death, making our faith alive. When God seems silent to you, He has not left you. He is moving in your life.

I do not know all the reasons God is silent. I believe sometimes He is silent when there is a habitual sin in our lives. Habitual sin can keep us from feeling intimate with God. He may be calling us to a greater purpose by leaving that sin behind, but we can’t hear Him because we are blind to His calling. He is also silent at times when He wants us to learn to trust Him. If God answered all of our prayers and did everything we want right away, He wouldn’t be Lord over our lives. He would be a magic genie. God can also be silent when He is preparing the way for something better. In the example above, He had Mary and Martha wait. I’m sure they were angry and frustrated at Jesus for allowing Lazarus to die when they asked Him to heal their brother. But Jesus did not abandon them. He exceeded their expectations of Him.

God has a reason for His silence in your life too. I’ve learned that in times of waiting on Him, we are not to lose heart. Nor are we to sit back and do nothing. Waiting is active. Trusting God can be hard, and it takes work! In seasons of silence, it’s important to continue to go to Him in prayer, read His Word, and worship Him. And we can wait with anticipation that He will come through, because He is for you, not against you. King David faced several seasons of waiting, several seasons of silence from the Lord. In Psalm 28, David is pleading for the Lord to hear his cry. He says in verse 1, “To You, Lord, I call; You are my rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit.” David was in a low place. But even in the midst of God’s silence, David kept calling out to Him, worshipping Him, and trusting in Him. Later in that same chapter, David says “Praise be to the Lord, for He has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him and He helps me” (Psalm 28:6-7). I want to have the kind of faith that trusts my Heavenly Father no matter what. Because I know who He is, I can know that He is taking care of me and is always there.

Maybe God has seemed silent to you for days, weeks, or even years. But He is not satisfied with a shallow relationship with you. He wants all of you and calls you to something deeper, something spectacular. That is why He is silent. He wants you to see that you need Him desperately and when you call upon Him, be excited that He will answer you in the right time. He’s in the waiting, He is always with you.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

– Jeremiah 29:13

 

Take courage my heart

Stay steadfast my soul

He’s in the waiting…

Hold onto your hope

As your triumph unfolds

He’s never failing…

-Bethel Music, Kristene DiMarco