When God is Silent

“Clouds and thick darkness surround him.”    —Psalm 97:2a

I found myself backed up in the express checkout lane at the grocery store. The person at the head of the line had two or three orders in her cart with each pushing the 20-item limit. On top of that, she was clipping coupons. It’s funny (or maybe sad) that my righteous indignation kicks in strongest when I am the one being inconvenienced. I moved to a different line so I wouldn’t stand there fuming and thinking badly about the person in front.

In my new line, a lady bought a bottle of vitamin D tablets. The cashier asked, “Don’t you drink enough milk?" "It's not that, you don't get enough sunlight around here in the wintertime,” she responded, “and it really gets me down."  We all experience some level of cabin fever in winter, but those with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) really suffer from the lack of sunlight and longer nights.

Spiritually, we all go through dark times. The scriptures frequently equate God’s presence with darkness and clouds. I contemplated what Psalm 97 means when it says, “Clouds and darkness surround him.” I believe there is awesomeness to God’s presence, and at times, God’s ways are hidden in mystery.

Jesus revealed God as a loving Father who seeks to be reconciled with us. Jesus called His disciples friends because He told them everything, but at times, Jesus’ ways, also seemed shrouded in darkness. Remember when Mary and Martha waited four days in vain for Jesus to come and heal their brother, Lazarus? At another time, Jesus slept in the back of the boat while the disciples feverishly tried to keep the boat afloat amid a violent storm. Once, Jesus sent the disciples across the lake alone at night while He went to the mountain to pray.  A storm arose and they nearly sank in Jesus’ absence.

What do you do when God is silent? Clouds, darkness, and silence move us beyond a faith dependent upon external things to a deeper faith in the Lord alone. Oswald Chambers describes clouds as “the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God” (My Utmost, July 29). Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God teaches us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith.

In silence, we unlearn the weak faith taught by worldly Christianity. Worldly faith depends upon the acclaim of others, the abundance of money and things, and the blessings of sunshine and rainbows.  The Lord wants to bring us to the place where our faith rests in God alone. When Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, a thick cloud encompassed them, and “They were fearful as they entered the cloud” (Luke 9:34). Is there anyone except Jesus in your cloud? “If so, it will only get darker until you get to the place where there is ‘no one any more, but only Jesus …’” (My Utmost, July 29).

As you wait out the long nights of winter or journey through spiritual darkness and silence, trust God’s presence even though you cannot see or feel it. Mary and Martha both greeted Jesus, “If you had been here” (John 11:21, 32). Jesus responded by saying, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus was present in absence and went on to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus is the same today as He was then. You can lean on the Lord, even when things are dark, even when God seems silent.