Church of the Nazarene -East Rock
When God Seems Silent
When God Seems Silent: “Are you in A Hurry?”
We can really struggle when our timeline isn’t being met can’t we?
Whether that’s in a customer service line, a restaurant, or even in the car waiting for our spouse, we struggle with waiting.
From very early on in our lives, we have expectations for how fast things should happen, and when they don’t, the frustration mounts.
Even in our walk with Jesus-
We pray and we want answers now.
We hurt and we want healing- yesterday.
When we’re confused, we want direction
And when those prayer’s go seemingly un-answered, our frustration can mount, we can begin to believe that God is silent, that he doesn’t really hear our broken hearts.
Have you been there??
2 Peter 3:8-9
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Today if you would say that God seems silent, like he is not moving, not listening, and not speaking- perhaps we might ask the searching question:
Are you in a hurry?
Welcome back to part 3 of our teaching series “When God seems silent”
Throughout this series we are seeking to understand how to approach life when God appears not to be speaking, when he seems silent.
We acknowledge that in our human experience, the walking out of our faith, it’s not always as easy to hear the Lord as we might wish.
To hear him takes intentionality- Listening to the Lord is not a passive activity, we must actively listen making space to hear his voice.
Un confessed sin can also serve to separate us from his voice, from the relationship with him that we were made for.
And sometimes we can misinterpret God’s delay as His silence.
Psalms 27:13-14
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
David in writing this psalm has firmly placed his faith and trust in the Lord, that he will see His goodness in the land.
A lot like listening, our waiting is not a passive activity on our part.
To wait on the Lord is to seek him, to trust him, to allow him to work within our hearts as we wait on HIS plan to unfold, yes, in his timing…Not ours.
God is not making us wait to annoy us, he is having us wait to transform us. To strengthen our faith and trust in him.
Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
In God, waiting isn’t the time when nothing is happening. Waiting is the time when EVERYTHING is happening.
However, much it might feel desolate, or hopeless, again and again the scriptures say- that it’s in the waiting that our strength is renewed.
His followers that learn to wait on Him will renew their strength… In the waiting
They will soar on wings like eagles… in the waiting
They will run, they will not grow weary…In the waiting
Through the waiting they will walk and not faint..
Friend if you are in the waiting today, I invite you to claim that promise.
Our schedule is always faster; His is always better.