When God is Silent

Silence – Mark 4:35-41

God speaks to us in several ways. Some of these are His word (The Bible), Prayer, Church, Circumstances, and SILENCE!

Read Mark 4:35-41

[That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"]

In this passage the disciples are afraid b/c the waves are high and there is a staorm threatening their lives. Yet God in the flesh, perfection personified, the soon to be savior of the world, chose to SLEEP.

Many of us tend to put the disciples down for their lack of faith here, especially since Jesus was right there with them in the flesh. But we do the same thing almost daily. When things aren’t going our way or we’re having a rough couple of days, and we’re at our weakest, its easy for us to ask “where is God now?” or “doesn’t he know that I need him?” or even, “Don’t you care if i drown?”

What we fail to realize is that God is always silent for a reason. And in his perfect knowledge and power, he’s always silent at the perfect time, though to us it may not seem that way.

1- Silence tests the authenticity of our faith.

- Are we faithful followers or just fair-weather friends?

- During the storm, Jesus stayed silent to test the faith of his disciples, how real it was or did it even exist at all.

2- Silence tests the focus of our lives.

- Do we worship him for what he DOES or for WHO he is?

- When our focus is on the right thing (God) we will be able to say whole heartedly that God isn’t keeping something FROM us, but FOR us. We wont curse him for doing something TO us but thank him for doing something FOR us.

3- Silence forces us to get REAL with God.

- Do we have a casual acquaintance or a deep and essential relationship with him?

- When the storm was raging, all of the small talk was gone, and the disciples were left alone with their lack of faith.

But this was ok…

This ONE event was one that made these men into some of the “giants” of our faith. These same guys went on to saturate our world with the Gospel.

- His silence is never about the answers or the results. It is ALWAYS about the faith and the deepening of the relationship

- When God is silent, it doesn’t mean that he’s rejecting you.

In the following video, the son was only ever interested in what his dad did for him. He never listened to his advice or did anything he was told to do. So the father decided to give his son the dreaded “silent treatment.” At first the son was ok with it, he just did what he wanted to do and tried to trick his dad into talking to him, but after a few days, it finally got to him and he cracked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWFdeyljAG4

Robbie Ray stopped talking to his son to teach him the importance of his father and he was silent long enough for his son to get the point.

In the same way, God chooses to give us, his beloved children, the silent treatment. Not to punish us but to teach us. He will be silent long enough for us to stop caring about what he can do for us. He’ll be silent until you are desperate just to hear his voice, desperate just for HIM. Until his very presence is enough.

One of my mentors once told me a story about a time of silence she had in her walk with God. It went on for longer than many of us have ever experienced. At one point, she was with her father doing mission work in a third world country doing mission work in a 3^rd-world country. She’d become really bitter with God and it had begun to show. One night during a church gathering with the locals, God finally spoke. I want to end with the simple words that he spoke to her. He said,

“If you never hear me again, will you still serve me?
If you never feel me again, will you still love me?”