What do you do when you can’t hear God’s voice?
I write this from a place of frustration.
Someone asked me the other day how my relationship with God was going.
I said it felt like I was in a troubled marriage – I keep turning up for the dates, but the mealtimes are strained and awkward and neither party seems to have anything to say to one another. I’m reading the Bible, and I know it, I know it all – but it still feels like porridge, stodgy and wearisome and cold.
And the voice of God – I’m not hearing it! The voice of God that breaks the cedars of Lebanon, that has the sound of rushing waters, that makes wars cease – where is this voice? What makes Him so hard to hear?
I read my boy the psalms – ‘I am like a deer who wants water – I’m thirsty for you, God!’ and I know that psalm is the prayer of my heart.
So I stand here today and offer him my voice. I call to Him. I shout. I hunger and thirst for His words to me.
And somewhere in the middle of the calling and shouting I feel the whisper of God.
Over to you:
- What helps you when God feels distant?
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Thank you for expressing so well and so plaintively what we all encounter from time to time. It helps me to remember that God is in the Silence and the Shouting. As we still ourselves before Him He will minister to our souls whether we feel/hear anything or not. Such is the enigma of faith and growing in trust despite lack of evidence. May you emerge from your ‘dark night of the soul’ soon with a greater awareness of the the Beloved’s presence than before. 🙂
God is in the stillness, but He is also in the Shouting too – this was my discovery today. Thank you for your encouragement, sweet Joy – I really appreciate it. 🙂
Thanks you for sharing this, Tanya! Sometimes waiting for that whisper of His still small voice in the midst of a personal wilderness gives me a chance to see (maybe only much later!) that I’m actually listening to my own fears and imagined scenarios or expectations that can drown out His whisper for a while. God often seems to give us the space we need to take out our protective earplugs, too, only to realise he’s been holding us gently and patiently all along. Blessings and love to you and yours xxx
It’s so hard, isn’t it, to discern when the it’s God, and when it’s just us?
Thanks, as ever, for your encouragement. 🙂
Oh yes. It’s always a whisper…
Praying we learn to lean in close and be still enough to hear it.
Love your honesty, friend! So poignant. Beautiful write — one He’s proud of I’m certain!
Thanks, lovely Nikki – it felt a bit of a ‘messy’ write, but sometimes those are important too.
For me God seems the most distant when I am focussing on my problems more than on Him. It helps to remember some great advice from my old pastor “Feelings are not the source of truth”. This helps me remember the TRUTH of His promises – never to leave me or forsake me – and to chase away the doubt and worry…which are only feelings afterall. Like your blog btw!
This is something I have been considering a lot recently – where we turn our eyes, and whether it makes a difference. I’m still considering it, really! I love that phrase, ‘feelings are not the source of truth’. Thanks too for your encouragement on the blog – nice to see you on here! 🙂
Prayers and blessings to you.
thanks, Denise!
I love the analogy…oh those times can be so frustrating and baffling…but keep calling out…He does hear…and even when the silence want to shout louder…His voice is there in the whisper…and the silence want us to interrupt these times through a false lens…that God doesn’t care…He is not loving….He is a distant God. I think if the enemy can get us to believe this during these times of testing…he wins…but to keep our eyes on Truth, who is a person, we will see and hear more clearly. thanks for sharing…blessings~
Thanks so much for this, Ro. Sometimes i think the whisper is to be heard in the midst of the calling out…
I often wonder why the conversation is one sided, why I can not hear God’s voice, where he seems not present, and my soul aches with whys or why not. I love the thought that God is silent because he is planning something for me that is yet to be revealed.
I love the way you express it here – you really get it. Thank you. I think I am less scared than I used to be of God’s silences (though sadly no less frustrated!) – and I was surprised that I actually felt a connection with God even as I was berating Him for not connecting with me. Sometimes I wonder if He hides so that we seek…?
Perhaps not hiding but waiting. I always think that we are waiting on God. Perhaps he is waiting on us. Waiting for us to get to the place we can see him; or trust him no matter if we are blind to him right before our heart’s eyes.
So thankful God has given us a voice to cry out to Him and His promise that he hears! Keep crying out! Thank you for your honesty!
Just – thank you 🙂