Speak Up God, I Can't Hear You!

Have you ever had a genuine need, not a want but a real need, that only God could deal with? You prayed and prayed, but God remained silent and you began to doubt God's ability or even willingness to provide for that need. Did you ask God why He was being silent?

I had such a situation recently. I had a HUGE (from my perspective) need and I longed to receive a quick answer from God so that I would feel better and be able to give Him the glory for the way He provided. Unfortunately God was silent for quite awhile. During my waiting time, I looked for signs that God was still there and still loved me because I was feeling very alone and wondering if anybody loved me.

My special love gifts from God are gold finches. I looked out at my finch feeder in my back yard many times each day and there was not one of those beautiful little finches that would be a sign of God's love for me. I needed that reassurance that He still loved me. I began to ask God where He was and why he was being silent for so long.

The answer came to me this past weekend. God was being quiet because He needed me to recognize an area in my life that I needed to grow in. It was a difficult revelation to me in an area that I had thought that I was doing pretty good in overall. With brilliant clarity, God showed me that I needed to address some unhealthy attitudes that had crept into my heart. I was shocked at what I saw and confessed it right away and promised the Lord that I was going to start working on them immediately.

When I started watching for these negative attitudes, I realized that they were manifesting themselves in a lot of areas. Again, I was shocked at how ingrained they had become in my life. After that revelation and my commitment and work to start changing those unhealthy/displeasing attitudes, guess what I saw in my back yard. . . .gold finches! I am also seeing God showing up in amazing ways and meeting those HUGE needs that have been unmet for far longer than I would have liked.

I was wanting my own comfort rather than God's perfect timing of His provision. This was pretty selfish of me and that is exactly the issue God needed me to recognize and get control over, selfishness! I am actively and intentionally working on my selfishness and it is hard work, but very important!

I am NOT saying that God's silence is always in response to sin in our lives, otherwise He would always be silent because we are all sinful creatures and our very nature is sinful. I am also NOT saying that God was withholding His love for me because I did not see the gold finches. What I am saying is that in my case, He wanted and needed to reveal my sin to me and His silence helped me to be able to recognize it. I am now thankful for God's silence, and even more thankful for the restoration of our relationship. I LOVE to hear God's voice and long to see Him moving in my life every day!