Daily Devotional: Trusting God When He is Silent

Read Psalm 13:1-6

We can get pretty demanding of God, sometimes, can’t we? David was no exception as we read the longing in this Psalm. Yet we know God loved him tremendously. By the time we get around to praying for something, we want an immediate response. I expect that God does not like our impatience with Him, but I’m willing to bet that He understands it.

Whenever I feel that God is silent, and I am tempted to question whether or not He truly loves me or even knows what is going on in my life, I do this one thing. I list the things that I know for certain are true. 1. I know that God loves me so much that Jesus suffered the punishment for my sin on the cross. Because of this, I am completely forgiven and redeemed.  2. God has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me. 3. When I read the Bible, I am far more likely to hear His voice. 4. God will give me strength to handle anything that comes my way.

I know that God’s ways are much higher than mine, so I cannot explain why sometimes He offers miracles and other times silence; why sometimes He intervenes and other times He lets things take their course. I do not know. Remember Job? As he was going through incredible struggles with no understanding as to why this was happening to him, he said, “He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He breaks up the storm. By His Spirit He adorned the heaven; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26:12-14).

Do not lose faith when it seems you haven’t heard from God in a while. Hold onto what you know to be true.  Most importantly, remember that God’s love for you is unwavering and unfailing. Thankfully, His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). For this very reason, we can trust Him – even when He is silent.