Dealing With The Silence Of God

INTRODUCTION

I am not sure about all of you, but I know that there have been some times in my life where I have cried out to God … asking Him for some kind of answer … and NOTHING!

NO response! NO answer! Just absolutely NOTHING!

SILENCE!!!

I have, at times, felt so let down … so hurt that I have prayed similar prayers to what David prayed in the verses we read!

I have cried, “God, where are you?”

I remember one night about 2 months after I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart … I got a call at about midnight from a high school friend of mine … she was in tears on the other end of the phone … she said these dreaded words, “There was an accident … they are all dead except Bill and he may not make it through the night.” I was in shock … you see, 2 weeks early I tried to witness to my good friend Bill Daly … he did not take me seriously … he honestly thought I was ‘tripping on something’ (his exact words) … That night I cried out to God … “Please, God, spare Bill … don’t let him die until he gives his life to you.”

Do you know what I heard? Nothing … except at about 6 am I received a phone call … “Bill just died.”

I was crushed … my faith was shaken … that was the 1st time I felt the SILENCE OF GOD!!!

I heard the deafening sound of THE SILENCE OF GOD for the second time … about 7 months after the 1st time … I just finished my first semester at Central Bible College … I was coming home for Christmas … about a week had passed and I received a call from the same friend of mine … I was really believing that she became the ‘angel of death’ … but she had told me that Brian Riniolo had committed suicide … he was a star quarterback in WNY … had a baseball scholarship to Canesius College … you see, about 5 months before this happened … Brian, Matt, and I used to jam together at Brian’s house in the bedroom where Brian took his own life … the last time we played together … Matt and I began to talk to Brian about the Lord … he said, “That’s awesome … I am going to really think about it.” When I heard the voice on the other end of the phone tell me that Brian killed himself I WAS CRUSHED FOR THE SECOND TIME!

I asked God, “WHY?” And do you know what I heard … “SILENCE.”

In December of 2001 … I walked into a packed Catholic Funeral for Brian Riniolo … that was one of the saddest days of my life … I the Bible College Student who should have had the answers … only heard the SILENCE OF GOD … I could not offer hope, because I NEEDED HOPE AND HEALING!!!

I thank God that I have had prayers that where answered over my 11 years of serving God … many of them I have been HUGE answers!

One of which … I was able to pray with an inmate who had AIDS … the power of the Lord came down on this guy … he was slain in the spirit got up rejoicing … Chaplain Maceo Freeman took him to the prison hospital … AIDS NO MORE … he was healed immediately!!!

However, alongside those immediate answered prayers are many other prayers which "didn’t get past the ceiling."

DID ALL THE PRAYERS OF THE GODLY MEN IN THE BIBLE GET ANSWERED?

Moses begged God to let him lead his people into the Promised Land. Moses died on Nebo’s peak, his request refused.

Paul prayed three times for the removal of that "thorn in the flesh." Instead, he was compelled to make the best of it for the rest of his life … God did not answer!

Even Jesus himself in the garden cried out for release from the cross. Instead he had to suffer the pain of it.

Young person, there are going to be times in your devotional/prayer life where you hear God’s voice, but there will also be times when you feel the SILENCE OF GOD!!!

And that is why I believe many of us really do not pray or even worship … because all too often we sense the SILENCE OF GOD!!!

Someone once said, “Non-Christians don’t pray, because they are afraid God will answer them. Christians don’t pray, because they are afraid God will not answer them.”

I want to share with you some simple thoughts on the SILENCE OF GOD!

1. WHEN YOU CAN’T HEAR HIM … KNOW