Finding God in the Silence

Where is God when the going gets hard? Why can't I hear Him? Why do I feel so alone?

Sometimes we go through heartaches that nobody else seems to understand. It feels like the weight of our problems is only ours to bear. Often times when things are the hardest God feels the farthest. We try to seek Him and look to Him for help, but all we seem to get is silence and emptiness.

When we can't feel God it is hard to trust in Him and know that He is working all things together for His good. It's hard putting everything we have into His hands when we don't see Him or can't hear His voice. Sometimes we hear a faint whisper of His presence, but it doesn't seem very secure or dependable.

Trusting in God isn't risky or treacherous. It's not uncertain or unreliable, rather, having faith in ourselves is risky and unreliable. Instead we place our trust in things other than God and then we wonder why worry, fear and despair overtakes our faith and causes us to doubt. We try to take control of our lives and jump ahead to the future when God is telling us to rely on Him in the present.

How many times I take my life into my own hands. I look at my problems and see them as things I have to bear on my own. And when I begin to take my burdens, heartaches and worries on by myself I realize that I grow weak. I begin to lose my focus, and doubt comes flooding in. Once doubt comes into the picture, worries, insecurities, fear and uncertainty all erupt and it's like a nose-dive heading right into Satan's schemes.

Satan wants us to question God. He wants to use the silent times we experience as a time to doubt God and let our relationship with Him to be chipped away by our distrust. God isn't trying to ignore us or push us aside, but He often uses the silent times in our lives to see how strong our faith really is. When everything else around us is taken away, it really shows just how much we rely on those things to bring us happiness and contentment on a day to day basis rather than relying on God.

God has really showed me that my joy doesn't come from friends, relationships, my income, job or even my family. My joy comes from God. Everything else will change and disappear, but God's love always remains. I will never be truly happy with things of this world. They let us down and leave us with pain. God is the one thing that will always remain by our side no matter what we face.

The next time God is silent and you begin to doubt Him handling your situation, know that Satan is trying to make you doubt. He takes whatever insecurities we have and uses them against us. Yes, although God may seem silent, it doesn't mean He's not working and handling your future. God doesn't always work in the daytime, sometimes He works at night, when we can't see what He's doing. But when the morning comes we will soon see the beautiful and miraculous plans He has in store for our lives.

God will never disappoint us even though it may feel like He has forgotten us. He will never fail us, because He knows what is for our best. Our plans may feel destroyed, but God's plans are always handled with great detail and purpose far beyond what we see.

I love the quote "the teacher is always silent during the test." It's so true. God is often silent to see how we will react and will we fall or will we fly? Will we rely on His strength and mount with wings like eagles or will we fall using our own fragile wings? Look to God in the midst of the silence you are facing and know that He is there. He is working. He is protecting you. And he is using this to strengthen you. Don't doubt, but look to God and seek Him even through the silence.