When God says Nothing

When he gives quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hides his face, who then can behold him?

Job 34:29

For several weeks now, I have been seeking God’s direction. I have prayed. I have looked for guidance. I’ve sought the wisdom of other believers. I’ve searched His word. I’ve listened intently to sermons that His will might be discerned. Yet I have nothing. What am I to make of this?

Perhaps He has been speaking. Was I too busy searching the earthquake, seeking the fire and trying to catch the mighty wind that I missed His still, small voice? Maybe the Holy Spirit was speaking, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin; my deafness convinces me that God says nothing.

Or perhaps He really has said nothing. Why should He always guide me? He’s not some servant who comes a-running when I click my fingers, nor is He some Sat Nav that I dig out of the glovebox and switch on because this journey is more difficult than the others. God often silently reveals His will through providence, that is, the divine arrangement of events and circumstances.

Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?”

Job 26:14

It’s interesting that the two passages that speak the most to me come from Job. He was a man who spent many chapters reflecting on events and on why God acts silently. Only at the very end does Shaddhai speak in the whirlwind: "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”, He asks. This much though, I cannot doubt. My times are still in His hands, even though He may ‘be quiet in His love’ (Zephaniah 3:17).

Asaph cried: O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God (Psalm 83).

POSTSCRIPT:

I received my answer 12 hours before the deadline. 

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