[Assignment] "We face this as caregivers. In our pastoral role we seek to support others for whom God seems silent, or distant, or even fully absent. But I'm asking us to be more vulnerable with each other in this discussion. Have you experienced the silence/distance/absence of God in your spiritual journey? How have you managed that? What has helped you?"
We know that God never leaves us nor forsakes (abandons) us. So what is he doing? Why is he silent?
What has helped us:
1. Press into God. When God seems silent and distant - pursue Him relentlessly. Pray, fast, read scripture, and do whatever it takes to change your daily lifestyle and routine to build more God-time into your day. Build quiet time into your day as well. I spent about a week in complete silence while driving in my car (which I drive often). I used this time to think, pray, listen, and dedicate to God. I combined a fast Easter weekend with my desire to hear from God. I woke up earlier (most days) to spend more time with God and took more opportunities throughout the day to pray. I was open with some trustworthy people to pray for us as well. Sometimes when we press into God and pursue Him, it still feels like He is moving away from us. This means we must be persistent in our intent and activity. However, we cannot think we will manipulate God by our faith-works, so our earnestness must be sincere. We must bear in mind the humble words of Jesus in Gethsemane, “not as I will, but as You will” (Mt. 26). We must be faithful in taking opportunities and making the most of our time with God, but we must also yield and consecrate our future to Him. We must trust that God’s ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are not ours (Is. 55). This gives us hope that God’s perspective is the ‘big picture’ and we only have a glimpse.
2. “Do what’s next.” This was the best, most simple piece of advice we recently received. When those times come that God seems distant, it is often that our world seems more chaotic and problematic. In those times we must seek the counsel of God (as said above) and trust that God will enable us to make the right decisions. Then, when we are faced with making decisions and moving forward, we look at what we can do (what we have the capability of doing) and go about doing it. We must be as discerning as possible and there is no excuse for carelessness. However, I have recently discovered that these are times when God wants faithful and obedient action from us.
3. Resist the Devil. I don’t know that I would say it that way when counseling someone, but we must resist those human urges to be angry, scared, frustrated, anxious, etc. Actually, we must keep those emotions within their proper perspective by taking our emotions and talking them over with God and a trusted partner (spouse, mentor, family member, friend, etc.). The negative aspect of emotion is easy to slip into and stay stuck in so we must develop healthy and appropriate ways of managing those emotions. In this way, we are resisting the Devil that would want us to stay faithless, hopeless, and frustrated (remember - steal, kill, destroy - Jn. 10).
4. There is power in praise. This could be combined with #3, but it deserves its own number. A book I read years ago transformed my thinking (“Prison to Praise” and/or “Power in Praise” by Merlin Carothers). When things get tough, the more things we can find to thank God for (give Him praise) – the better we are. Praise helps us be optimistic. It takes the focus off of our problems and puts the glory on God. It’s been said that ‘you get what you focus on’ and we don’t want our problems to get the glory.
This, of course, is not "Mike's Four Easy Steps to Hearing God" but a combination of all these (some more, some less) has been some of what my wife and I have learned over the years. By the grace of God we are not consumed!