What Would You Say?
I once met someone who's life only knew the last part of Psalm 116:1-4. (I've highlighted it in blue for you and then I italicized their words and questions to me). Please take a look and tell me what you would have said to them. Either send an email or click on the comment box below.
"I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord"
. . . but He never answered. It's been ten years. I still believe in God, but why is he silent to me? Why do you love the Lord?
I'm throwing down the gauntlet: What would you say to these questions?
My biggest fear is that you won't say anything.
I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you ahead of time-- Thanks!
"I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord"
. . . but He never answered. It's been ten years. I still believe in God, but why is he silent to me? Why do you love the Lord?
I'm throwing down the gauntlet: What would you say to these questions?
My biggest fear is that you won't say anything.
I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you ahead of time-- Thanks!
Comments
Interesting...
I would say to this person that I know exactly how they feel. There are things in my life (important things) that I feel God has also been silent about. I would empathize with how lonely and gut-wrenching it feels to wrestle with God and not get an answer. I would ask what the silence creates in him/her...which could be huge issues. Then I would validate the feelings created by those issues, whether they are the "right" feelings or not. Then I would tell him/her that this life is full of mysteries...God cannot be put into boxes...but that perhaps in time he/she needs to let go and rest in God's love that always permeates through our mysteries and confusion...that nothing will separate us from the love of God. Perhaps the letting go of the need for an answer will bring about the answer. Perhaps not, but there will be a day when all is revealed.
PS...saying all this in one sitting might not be practical or even beneficial...but that is the essence of what I would try to connect to him/her with over time.
In my experience, God typically 'speaks' to me through scripture or through other followers of Jesus. But when I'm hurting, I often avoid scripture and my friends or simply reject what I hear from them because I'm waiting for some other means of communication from God. What I see in scripture (when I'm not hurting) is a loving God passionately pursuing his people. But when I'm hurting, I often miss that passionate pursuit, because I isolate myself and am convinced that no one has ever felt like I feel -- so what could they possibly offer me.
I believe that healing and hearing both come while immersed in authentic, loving, shared-life community. I also believe that this kind and depth of community is extraordinarily rare in our culture.
My heart runs out to your friend. Loss is such a difficult thing to cope with. Yet, every human has or will have to experience it. I don't think anyone was intended to experience it alone.
Maybe you got your answer, but because it isn't what you wanted or expected, you think you didn't get an answer. I can't imagine silence from Him when you are really seeking him. But if you're not really seeking him, you won't find him. You need to do an honest examination of what you really believe and where you're coming from. What do you expect from Him? Are you searching Scripture to see what He will and won't do, what he wants from you?
Or maybe you've put up some roadblocks of your own. I don't believe the Lord ever turns away from someone truly seeking him -- even if that person has a besetting sin in their life. I'm speaking from experience here; I had a major sin in my life back aways. It frustrated me because I kept asking the Lord to give me victory over it, but I fell to temptation time and time again. One night, I prayed: "Lord, how can you still love me when I keep giving in? How can you still forgive me?" I had a Bible verse come to mind: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)" I have held fast to that and been able to overcome. He answers sincere prayer. He is faithful to forgive when we confess our sin.
That's why I love Him -- because He loved me first; because He still loves me despite my failings. My grace is not dependent on me, but on Him, and I am thankful for that.
I would have asked this, "Are you sure He has not answered you?" God's answer may not be in the form as you expected...keep an open mind and ear to everything around you. There are many passages in the Psalms that talk about God answering prayer, the following passage may help you think about how the Lord reveals himself to you, it has helped me.
Psalms 118:4-6
Let those who fear the Lord say: "His love endures forever."
In my anguish, I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free.
The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
As for the second question "Why do you love the Lord?"
Simply...His love is forever and unchanging. He gives me everlasting life!
That is a TOUGH question. And I really feel like I am too young and inexperienced to answer... But my first thought was whether there is sin blocking the relationship between the person and God. I mean, I have found that to be the case in my own life a few times. And day 3 of the study we're doing right now really hits it on the head. It may very well be something other than sin for your friend, but that seems like a possibility you'd want to eliminate first. Other than that, I thought the first person who wrote a comment on your blog said it really well when he/she said that sometimes there are mysteries. And another person wrote that our faith is not always based on feelings. Those are both very true. We have to trust that God is there, even when it doesn't feel like it. It's not too comforting to hear that when you're desperate to hear something from God, but it is the truth! I guess that is why it's "faith"... it means we have to be certain of things we do not see.
For the second question, I love God because He loves me infinitely more than I deserve and has saved me from spending eternity in a terrible place!
So I don't feel like I really answered the first question very well, but I thought I'd send you my thoughts. :) Thanks for giving me the opportunity to pick my brain a little bit this evening!
Kylee
I haven't had to answer anything like that before and the Lord would have to give me the words for that moment if it ever came since it just took me about 20 minutes to type a couple sentences...
Well, when my grandfather was mugged, and my other grandfather struck by a car within 6 months. I remember thinking the same thing. Where is God, why is he silent? Where was he? When my grandfather was fighting for his life in the hospital, I prayed that God would spare his life. God didn't hear me, he was silent. When I prayed that my other grandfather who had been mugged, would recover and remember us. God didn't here me.
I think the sorrow and pain at that time was so great that I couldn't hear God's still small voice.
It has often been the times that God is silent that I have come to know him more deeply. I believe when God is silent, it lets us realize our need for him. Whether that silence is for 5, 10, or 20 years. I learned a lot about myself and my relationship with God through his silence during a very rough time in my life.
When I saw that question, I immediately thought of a woman I know. There was an 87 year old woman in the church I grew up in who had prayed for 28 years that her friend would be saved from an eternity in hell. She often spoke about how God seemed to have forgotten about her and her friend's need of salvation. But, she always said, I will continue to pray for her as long as I am on this earth. It took 28 years of faithful prayer and silence from God on this issue, before her friend came to know Christ. I think God's silence and his timing is something that we won't fully understand in this lifetime.
So I would say, that God speaks to us through His silence and we come to know him more profoundly through the times when we feel like we have been abandoned by Him. His silence has taught me about my need for him, my emptiness without him, and the state of my relationship with Him.
Why do I love the Lord?
I love the Lord because he offered me something that I cannot repay, because he loved me enough to die for me, because he forgave me and saved me from an eternity in hell, because he loves me unconditionally even when I don't show my love for him. I love Him because I delight in Him.
Even when he is silent, I know he is exists, I know he is there by my side even when I don't feel it, and I know that he loves me.