How Do I Respond When He’s Silent?

By Alexandra Copeland

Sometimes, it can seem as though we’re praying continually for something to come to pass, and there doesn’t seem to be any movement in our circumstances. We hear a lot about prayer warriors and how faithful they are to being on the wall, praying continually for others and themselves. Some will say, “She sure can get a prayer through.” We say this of a person who seems to get results from heaven every time. But it doesn’t matter who you are, every believer will endure a season where answers to prayers don’t materialize in the fashion in which we’re accustomed. When this happens, some of us will immediately think we’ve done something wrong, that somehow, we’ve displeased God and this is the reason we’re not seeing conditions and circumstances change. The truth is that there are times when God is silent, and we need to know how to respond when He is.

Maybe it’s trouble with our spouses or the significant person in our lives; perhaps we’ve been praying for our children, work, financial challenges or a health condition. The truth is that all of us have faced or we’re currently dealing with a set of circumstances that makes us feel it’s imperative to hear from God with a quickness. Well, He isn’t on our timetable, and this can be a challenging truth for us to accept. God moves according to His own perfect timing and sometimes this doesn’t exactly square with our expectations. Emotionally, it can be taxing because some of us will walk away thinking God doesn’t care. Nothing can be further from the truth. 1Peter 5:7(NLT) tells us, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” So, although we may have hurt feelings about not hearing from God at the time we expect, we must know that He never abandons us. He will never fail us, and we must trust this.

Don’t let discouragement hinder your faith
There are some people that respond in anger when they don’t hear from God in the way they expect. Many have left the faith altogether because of this. One of the reasons for their anger has to do with experiencing a hardship so hurtful that its shocking. This is really difficult, because a devastating trauma can take our breath away, but we must not lose faith in God. He is always our safe harbor.

Some people may be experiencing a painful health condition and feel as though God should lift their pain so that they don’t have to suffer. There are many single people that have been praying for years to cross paths with the person of their dreams. They believe themselves to be decent and kind people, and it seems reasonable to them to want to meet someone that is compatible, someone they can share their lives with. They’ve tried meeting people on their own, they’ve tried dating sites, and have even met people they thought were promising, but nothing has materialized into a meaningful relationship. They can’t understand why God hasn’t blessed them with a spouse.

People become discouraged with keeping faith anchored in their hearts because faith requires diligence and persistence. It can be quite the workout for our spiritual muscles. We can’t see faith or touch it, and because it isn’t producing fast enough to our liking, our mental and emotional sides begin to turn away from feelings and thoughts of faith and give way to doubt; which leads to fear often times. These are the very instances where we must remind ourselves of 2Timothy 1:7(NLT), where Heavenly Father tells us, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” We can’t respond to God’s silence by allowing it to be said we place more stock in fear and doubt than we do in faith; for fear comes from the devil and faith comes from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We can’t demonstrate a willingness to put more energy in fear than we are willing to put in faith. We can’t allow discouragement to hinder us this way. When God is silent, the volume of our faith should be increased.

Kick it in high gear
Romans 12:2 tells us not to copy the behaviors and customs of the world. We can’t flip out or vacillate on our commitment to God when things become difficult. Jesus Christ has told us that it’s rocky terrain down here. We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so we can be stable and firmly anchored in God’s Word; then we’ll be able to navigate successfully. Romans 12:2 goes on to tell us that we must let God transform us into a new person, and we do this by changing the way we think. Most of us don’t like this. We want to remain the way we’ve always been, and we want to think the way we’ve always thought. The dynamic of life will not support this point of view. 

God designed life to be ever moving and ever changing. It will not slow down and wait for us. We must use the spiritual weaponry God has provided to stay agile and flexible, even when He’s silent. Then, when God says, “Go left!”, we can kick it in high gear and hop to it. Sometimes, God is silent because He’s waiting on us. We are more concerned with Him doing something FOR us than we are with Him doing something IN us through Christ. He needs to see that we are committed to change. So, when God is silent, it isn’t because He’s not hearing us or won’t help us. He absolutely will. He will give us the desires of our hearts. But when it’s growing time, we can’t ignore it! Romans 12:2 lets us know that when we renew our minds to God’s Word and change the way we think, He won’t let us down. He’ll reward our commitment to remain steadfast, and we will prove that He is as good as His Word says.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“How Do I Respond When He’s Silent?”, by Alexandra Copeland. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.