I believe that perhaps the most difficult days in our waiting are those days when it seems as though God has disappeared. Perhaps we once felt Him to be close to us, saw His hand move in our lives—but now? Now we look for Him, listen for His Voice, and it seems as though He is not there.
Have you ever asked God, “Where have you gone?”
I remember a poem I wrote once when I was feeling alone and abandoned.
It seemed to me as though my prayers were only empty echoes in my ears and God felt very far away.
Even David, who was a Giant- slaying-warrior-king and known for his great courage, had days where he felt alone and abandoned.
How else could he have written words like these?
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. [Psalm 102 KJV]
Haven’t we all felt like this?
When God seems silent and the heavens seem to be made of brass?
Jeremiah The Weeping Prophet wrote,
I’m the man who has seen trouble,
trouble coming from the lash of God’s anger.
He took me by the hand and walked me
into pitch-black darkness.
Yes, he’s given me the back of his hand
over and over and over again.
He turned me into a scarecrow
of skin and bones, then broke the bones.
He hemmed me in, ganged up on me,
poured on the trouble and hard times.
He locked me up in deep darkness,
like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.
He shuts me in so I’ll never get out,
manacles my hands, shackles my feet.
Even when I cry out and plead for help,
he locks up my prayers and throws away the key.
[Lamentations 3 The Message]
We all have felt like this—as though God has abandoned us. From the strongest and the bravest, to the weakest and most vulnerable, we all struggle with these feelings when we are waiting for God, and He seems silent—and distant.
If this is where you are?
If this is how you are feeling?
Don’t give up.
Your waiting is not in vain.
God has not disappeared though it may seem that He has. God is still there even in the dark days. His silence doesn’t mean He is still. Tony Evans, one of my favorite encouragers says, “God does some of His best work in the dark.”
When you feel like you are waiting in the dark and God is silent?
Hold on to hope and don’t let go!
Your prayers? Your tears? Are seen and heard.
The silence of God is something we all must face, sometime, somewhere.
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
Psalm 42:3 NIV
