“How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (Ps. 13:1). We all love when God answers prayers quickly. But what about when He is silent? Silence happens the vast majority of the time in the life of a believer, primarily because we want things now versus waiting; we want to be removed from the fire, not go through it.
But God wants us to learn the very important discipline of prevailing in prayer. John Piper rightly said, “God wants to see the lived-out reality of what He knows is in us.” And that often involves waiting. Silence is the great test of faith. Waiting time is not wasted time because this is when we truly develop our relationship with the Lord.
Read the story of Joseph beginning in Genesis 37 and see how he was tested in 3 different ways: 1. The Pit Test (I can’t get out of this), 2. The Potiphar Test (handling false accusations, harassment and lying, 3. The Prison Test (I don’t deserve this). In a message by Carter Conlon, Staying Strong When God is Silent, he lists many important points as to why God may be silent.
He may be silent because: It may be a test: “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him” (Ps. 105:19). Sometimes the problem isn’t that God hasn’t spoken. He has already spoken. We just don’t want to do what He said. When we don’t like the answer, we act like we didn’t hear it.
We know the answer; we just don’t like it. Then we keep praying for confirmation about something we already know the answer to. We ask God to show us, give us confirmation, give us a sign.