Like most people who read Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest, I have certain “days” that are most meaningful to me. September 12 is one that I know many people will point to as a favorite. A few other ones I would mention include July 6 and October 10. Now I am going to add another one – October 11.
When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days in the same place where He was. John 11:6
Has God trusted you with a silence – a silence that is big with meaning? God’s silences are His answers. Think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything analogous to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking for a visible answer? God will give you the blessings you ask if you will not go any further without them; but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into a marvelous understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? You will find that God has trusted you in the most intimate way possible, with an absolute silence, not of despair, but of pleasure, because He saw that you could stand a bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, praise Him, He is bringing you into the great run of His purposes. The manifestation of the answer in time is a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you said – “I asked God to give me bread, and He gave me a stone.” He did not, and today you find He gave you the bread of life.
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that the contagion of his stillness gets into you and you become perfectly confident – “I know God has heard me.” His silence is the proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, He will give you the first sign of His intimacy – silence.
David and I have been praying about some things and the silence is just deafening. We are in the process of making some potentially huge decisions and though we continue to pray and ask for guidance, we have been tempted to feel like we have been getting the spiritual equivalence of crickets chirping.
I had not picked up Oswald in some time and when I did the other day, this post just shouted out to me that it was for us, now. It was a blessing to realize that God is moving us into a new place in our walk with Him. The insecure part of me wants to throw out fleeces, ask for feelings of conviction when I pray, and see “signs” in how everything comes together. But as I recently observed and shared with David, over the course of our marriage, each time we have had to make a “big” decision, we’ve had less and less to go on. It is as though God is slowly pulling out the “spiritual props” and allowing us to walk more and more by faith and less and less by sight. It is scary and exciting at the same time.
So if I’m somewhat sporadic in my posting for a while, it’s because there are things going on that are taking a lot of my time and energy. If you think of us, we would certainly covet your prayers.
Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservations.
Elton Trueblood
Praying for you, Sallie…I know exactly what you’re talking about. 🙂
When I read this day in MUFHH I thought the same thing. Silence often forces us to ‘grow up’ if you will. I have found in my own spiritual walk that God gives me less and less direction each year, which should be the case. I am often reminded by the Holy Spirit that as we grow older we need less and less direction from our parents, and the world. That we ‘learn’ and grow. Consequently, we don’t need as much guidance. So it should follow that as we mature in Christ we should need less and less ‘words’ from HIM. We should ask for discernment and wisdom certainly – but as for expecting Him to ‘speak’ or maybe ‘confirm’ I believe we probably already have that – and are too fearful (and I realize that is a strong word) to walk out in faith and grab whatever it is that is before us.