Church of the Nazarene -East Rock
When God Seems Silent
When God Seems Silent: Part 1 “Are You Listening?
“In our world of seemingly endless communication and connection, is it possible that we are missing the most important one of all?
Our connection with the Lord
What do we do when that connection begins to fade?
It is those questions and many more that we will seek to answer in our new teaching series “When God Seems Silent”. Over the next few weeks we will seek to understand how to approach life when God appears not to be speaking, when he seems silent.
The Lord has not left himself without a witness, without voice into our lives, and the world. So, if you are indeed saying, “God seems silent” our first response is to ask: “Are you listening?”
Jeremiah 29:11-14
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart…Perhaps, if you feel the silence today- Like God is on mute somewhere, I think this passage in Jeremiah would ask us a tough question
Are you listening? Really listening- Like, with all of your heart listening?
Whether it’s listening to someone else, or to God, it’s always an active pursuit. So today, if God seems silent, it may be that we have stopped acting to hear him…What would it look like to seek him- to listen with all of your heart?
Throughout this teaching series we are going to examine a few other areas of our lives and a few other causes that may make it seem like God is silent.
Next week, we will unpack the idea that SIN is the ultimate silencer. Unrepented sin will always block our relationship with God, and therefore our communion with him.
Then, in part 3 we’ll talk about God’s delay. In our fast-paced, 5G phone, gotta have it now world, its often easy for us to mistake God’s delay in acting for silence. We are often tempted to think that simply because we haven’t seen the answer to our prayers, that God isn’t speaking or moving.
Finally, the ultimate issue we must face in hearing from God is trust. Do we trust that he speaks, that he hears, that he acts as he has promised? When we doubt Him, that can easily make him seem Silent.Matthew 7:7-8“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Listening is never a passive activity, will you take the first step out of silence?