Now I want you to read a statement about silence from God which, while here it is in the context of prayer, may be applied to every realm of life I believe.
I'm not a fan of daily devotions personally, I haven't been for a long, long time now, but this one is especially good I think. I'm sure I'm posting it in light of my answer in my final comment on my post just previous to this one. ENJOY.
Oswald Chambers said....
“Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was.” John 11:5-6.
Jesus stayed two days where He was without sending a word. We are apt to say—’I know why God has not answered my prayer, it is because I asked for something wrong.’ That was not the reason Jesus did not answer Martha and Mary— they desired a right thing. It is quite true God does not answer some prayers because they are wrong, but that is so obvious that it does not need a revelation from God to understand it. God wants us to stop understanding in the way we have understood and get into the place He wants us to get into, i.e., He wants us to know how to rely on Him.
God’s silences are His answers. If we only take as answers those that are visible to our senses, we are in a very elementary condition of grace. Can it be said of us that Jesus so loved us that He stayed where He was because He knew we had a capacity to stand a bigger revelation? Has God trusted us with a silence, a silence that is absolutely big with meaning? That is His answer. The manifestation will come in a way beyond any possibility of comprehension.
Are we mourning before God because we have not had an audible response? Mary Magdalene was weeping at the sepulchre—what was she asking for? The dead body of Jesus. Of Whom did she ask it? Of Jesus Himself, and she did not know Him! Did Jesus give her what she asked for? He gave her something infinitely grander than she had ever conceived—a risen, living impossible-to-die Lord. How many of us have been blind in our prayers?
Look back and think of the prayers you thought had not been answered, but now you find God has answered them with a bigger manifestation than you ever dreamed. God has trusted you in the most intimate way He could trust you, with an absolute silence, not of despair but of pleasure, because He saw you could stand a much bigger revelation than you had at the time.
Some prayers are followed by silence because they are wrong, others because they are bigger than we can understand. Jesus stayed where He was—a positive staying, because He loved them. Did they get Lazarus back? They got infinitely more; they got to know the greatest truth mortal beings ever knew—that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. It will be a wonderful moment for some of us when we stand before God and find that the prayers we clamoured for in early days and imagined were never answered, have been answered in the most amazing way, and that God’s silence has been the sign of the answer.
If we always want to be able to point to something and say, ‘This is the way God answered my prayer,’ God cannot trust us yet with His silence. Here is where the devil comes in and says, ‘Now you have been praying a wrong prayer.’ You can easily know whether you have—test it by the word of God. If it has been a prayer to know God better, a prayer for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, a prayer for the interpretation and understanding of God’s word, it is a prayer in accordance with God’s will.
You say, ‘But He has not answered.’ He has, He is so near to you that His silence is the answer. His silence is big with terrific meaning that you cannot understand yet, but presently you will. Time is nothing to God. Prayers were offered years ago and God answered the soul with silence; now He is giving the manifestation of the answer in a revelation that we are scarcely able to comprehend."
by Oswald Chambers
Good stuff.
Paul B.
by Oswald Chambers
Good stuff.
Paul B.
7 comments:
I needed to read this, Paul.
I let my wife read Wade's posting to his daughter (25th birthday) and she broke down crying. The whole point of me wanting her to read it was so that she could see how a right dividing of the Word could lead a man to treating women as his equal. She got that, but she got so upset because she never had a father to give her such a sweet and loving note - any note - let alone one so loaded with love and Biblical truth. Her father abandoned her when she was a baby.
I sort of figured that bothered her, but until Saturday, I had no idea how much - and that after almost 3 decades of marriage.
Anyhow, I should get to the point. I have been praying for a massive, huge blessing for my wife. Nothing specific, but for a few months now I have been praying for this unspecified blessing.
Not only was my wife abandoned by her father, but her first husband cheated on her. Her brother uses her when he needs something. Basically, every man that she has ever loved, has abandoned her. And the thing is, Paul, she's such an incredible woman. She is truly the rock of her family. Heck, she's the rock of the family we've created together. She's an amazing school teacher who puts in 12 hour days to a school system that is rapidly disinigrating and becoming harder and harder to work in. Her mother died of cancer when she was only 49. She's just not had a lot of breaks in her life.
And yet, she hasn't lost faith. She's just an incredible, beautiful woman, and I love her so much, and I just want her to once really feel like her heavenly father has an incredible, amazing blessing for her. As far as I can tell, that prayer hasn't been answered yet. So, like I said, I needed to read this. Thank you.
Johnny D,
it sounds like you're married to an incredible woman. I'll stand with you in that prayer. Let us know when there is an observable answer.
I would never want to trivialize your comment with a cliche'-ish answer but, in keeping with the topic of Oswald's words, I'm betting that incredible, amazing blessing for which you wait may be YOU at her side in full support of her.
Thank you, Paul. Isn't it amazing how your son's post and now your post has ministered to us both?
Paul,
You are so right! "Good stuff".
From personal experience: Our expectations are our problem.We want the answers to our prayers to be exactly as we have in mind when we pray.
It has often been in retrospect that it dawned on me that I had received the answer.
I'd agree with your wise words to Johnny D.
Bro.Paul,
Good post! May I add another thought? I think sometimes God is silent because we are too busy speaking.
“In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.”
― Mother Teresa, In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories and Prayers
Off the C,
I'm thinking your thinking may be on target.
If true, then His silence may be the flip side of our lack of silence. Maybe that's part of the meaning of "Be still and know...." []Psalm 46:10
Very inspirational and quite refreshing. I agree that so many times we easily lose faith because we think he hasn't answered, even though he so audibly does! Ah, does our depravity know now ends? We should be so thankful that he never gives up on us!
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