Silent Seasons: Pushing Through When The Voice of God is Silent by Nicole Webb
"God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" - Matthew 27:46
That phrase was among the seven last sayings of Christ before He died on the cross at Calvary. It's also a passage you'll hear in the coming weeks as many pastors and churches prepare for their Resurrection Sunday lesson plans...
But today, I want to use this passage of scripture to unpack what happens when it seems God has really forsaken us–when it feels like He's forgotten about us, and when it seems like when we call on Him, there's no answer to be heard.
Winters are the loneliest for most people. Non-clinical seasonal depression or cabin fever become uncomfortable coats of just heavy and dead weight keeping us warm in the winter season, and while some people just mope around about, others choose to utilize that time to cultivate something.
While some live out the whole "whoa is me" cliche in the lonely season, others make use of it–they get to work and utilize that time free from distraction. They aren't waiting on anyone or anybody to do for them, they just do it. They don't need a cheerleader, they don't need a rally, they don't need inspiration, they live out that inspiration in their work. And when springtime comes, they bloom.
Wouldn't it be nice if we were like the "go-getters" in our silent seasons?
What are 'silent seasons,' Nic?
I'm so glad you asked, friend!
Silent seasons–you know the times in our lives when it seems like life is happening all around us. And we're praying, and crying, praying and crying, asking GOD for an answer and it just seems He's out to lunch.
The times in our lives when we're uncertain of what's next, uncertain of what step to take, which direction to go, what decision to make, and we seek GOD for His advice and His wisdom and He doesn't even seem to bat and eyelash at you.
No gesture, no sign, no answer–just SILENCE.
And in those seasons, it's easy for many of us to get stuck, to get in a pity, to lose faith, to lose hope, and to think this situation will never change. It's easy to think you'll never get out of that season. It's easy to sit and sink in that season.
It's easy to enjoy the silence and take no accountability for what GOD has already said before it seems He became silent.
A lot of us believe the problem is GOD's silence, when in all actuality the problem is with us and our lackadaisical faith. Our faith is on fire when the signs are right in front of us, when GOD's voice seems loud and clear, we stop going to the Word for ourselves, relying on pastors and sermons to bring Jesus to us–forgetting He already came to us and that we sometimes have to go to Him. We get lazy with our faith; we aren't desperate enough.
We become cabin fever lazy Christians and we complain that we can't hear from GOD, when all He's ever needed to say has been written and can be summed up in two phrases:
1. GET UP...
2. AND TRUST ME.
"GET UP:"
When you're in a silent season, that isn't the time to sit down and do nothing. When you're in a silent season, that is the time to GET UP and do the work. It doesn't matter the captivity (look at Paul while he was in prison, Acts 16:16-40), it doesn't matter the situation (look at the three Hebrew Boys in the fiery furnace, Daniel 3), it doesn't matter the limitations (look at the woman with the issue of blood, Mark 5:25-34), it doesn't matter the suffering (look at Jesus on Calvary, Matthew 27:32-54), GET UP and do the work!
In your silent season is when your faith is tested, and has the potential to be perfected. But you have to GET UP and do the work!
In your silent season you're not as easily distracted, but if you remain idle in your silent season, not working, you give the enemy the opportunity to come in and disrupt your silence (look at Eve, Genesis 3). If you remain idle in your silent season, forgetting what GOD promised and instructed from you in the previous season, you risk your opportunity of obtaining the abundance that He has for you. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Christ came that you might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
It's in your silent season, that the enemy wants to steal you. And he can do so by convincing you that GOD's silence is equivalent to GOD's absence. And once he convinces you that GOD has forsaken you, then he'll convince you that you really are alone, that you really are isolated, therefore destroying the truth, which is that GOD is with you (Genesis 28:15). After the enemy convinces you that you are alone–destroying your truth–he'll break you down so much that he won't even need to do the killing part because you'll have already done it yourself.
Which is why you CANNOT be idle in your silent season–you have to GET UP and do the work (2Timothy 2:15).
"TRUST ME:"
Before this season, if you were paying attention, GOD was equipping you–He was preparing you because He knew the test time was coming. He knew His plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11), but He had to trust you with those plans first–that's what the test is. The silent season is a test to show you how much GOD can trust you with what He has planned for you.
In the silent season, GOD is trying to get you to see if you really have surrendered it all to Him, have you really been listening to His voice when He was teaching you, were you paying attention, were you being a good student?
In the silent season, GOD is showing you whether or not you have the faith that it takes to trust Him. He grows our faith in the silent season.
For Abraham, one of his silent seasons was when he was instructed to sacrifice his beloved son, Issac (Genesis 22). Abraham and his wife Sarah are both old in age, she's given birth to their only child after years of believing she could not conceive, GOD blesses her womb and they have Issac. Now, GOD tests Abraham and tells him to sacrifice Issac on Mount Moriah.
But Abraham trusted GOD.
As Abraham walked up Mount Moriah with his son Issac, GOD was silent. GOD did not give Abraham a heads up about how He was going to provide, He didn't tell Abraham to trust Him...but Abraham did so anyhow because of what GOD did before, and what GOD told Abraham before (Genesis 28:15). Even in GOD's silence while he was going up to Mount Moriah–even in his silent season–Abraham remained faithful, continued to get up and trusted GOD. And because Abraham trusted GOD, GOD provided.
And GOD will provide for you the same way He did for Abraham in your silent season, you just have to GET UP and TRUST HIM.
When you are confused on how to push through your silent season–when it seems like the voice of GOD is quiet–GET UP and TRUST HIM; He's growing your faith.
Praying for you in your silent season family,
Nic.
That phrase was among the seven last sayings of Christ before He died on the cross at Calvary. It's also a passage you'll hear in the coming weeks as many pastors and churches prepare for their Resurrection Sunday lesson plans...
But today, I want to use this passage of scripture to unpack what happens when it seems God has really forsaken us–when it feels like He's forgotten about us, and when it seems like when we call on Him, there's no answer to be heard.
Winters are the loneliest for most people. Non-clinical seasonal depression or cabin fever become uncomfortable coats of just heavy and dead weight keeping us warm in the winter season, and while some people just mope around about, others choose to utilize that time to cultivate something.
While some live out the whole "whoa is me" cliche in the lonely season, others make use of it–they get to work and utilize that time free from distraction. They aren't waiting on anyone or anybody to do for them, they just do it. They don't need a cheerleader, they don't need a rally, they don't need inspiration, they live out that inspiration in their work. And when springtime comes, they bloom.
Wouldn't it be nice if we were like the "go-getters" in our silent seasons?
What are 'silent seasons,' Nic?
I'm so glad you asked, friend!
Silent seasons–you know the times in our lives when it seems like life is happening all around us. And we're praying, and crying, praying and crying, asking GOD for an answer and it just seems He's out to lunch.
The times in our lives when we're uncertain of what's next, uncertain of what step to take, which direction to go, what decision to make, and we seek GOD for His advice and His wisdom and He doesn't even seem to bat and eyelash at you.
No gesture, no sign, no answer–just SILENCE.
And in those seasons, it's easy for many of us to get stuck, to get in a pity, to lose faith, to lose hope, and to think this situation will never change. It's easy to think you'll never get out of that season. It's easy to sit and sink in that season.
It's easy to enjoy the silence and take no accountability for what GOD has already said before it seems He became silent.
A lot of us believe the problem is GOD's silence, when in all actuality the problem is with us and our lackadaisical faith. Our faith is on fire when the signs are right in front of us, when GOD's voice seems loud and clear, we stop going to the Word for ourselves, relying on pastors and sermons to bring Jesus to us–forgetting He already came to us and that we sometimes have to go to Him. We get lazy with our faith; we aren't desperate enough.
We become cabin fever lazy Christians and we complain that we can't hear from GOD, when all He's ever needed to say has been written and can be summed up in two phrases:
1. GET UP...
2. AND TRUST ME.
"GET UP:"
When you're in a silent season, that isn't the time to sit down and do nothing. When you're in a silent season, that is the time to GET UP and do the work. It doesn't matter the captivity (look at Paul while he was in prison, Acts 16:16-40), it doesn't matter the situation (look at the three Hebrew Boys in the fiery furnace, Daniel 3), it doesn't matter the limitations (look at the woman with the issue of blood, Mark 5:25-34), it doesn't matter the suffering (look at Jesus on Calvary, Matthew 27:32-54), GET UP and do the work!
In your silent season is when your faith is tested, and has the potential to be perfected. But you have to GET UP and do the work!
In your silent season you're not as easily distracted, but if you remain idle in your silent season, not working, you give the enemy the opportunity to come in and disrupt your silence (look at Eve, Genesis 3). If you remain idle in your silent season, forgetting what GOD promised and instructed from you in the previous season, you risk your opportunity of obtaining the abundance that He has for you. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Christ came that you might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
It's in your silent season, that the enemy wants to steal you. And he can do so by convincing you that GOD's silence is equivalent to GOD's absence. And once he convinces you that GOD has forsaken you, then he'll convince you that you really are alone, that you really are isolated, therefore destroying the truth, which is that GOD is with you (Genesis 28:15). After the enemy convinces you that you are alone–destroying your truth–he'll break you down so much that he won't even need to do the killing part because you'll have already done it yourself.
Which is why you CANNOT be idle in your silent season–you have to GET UP and do the work (2Timothy 2:15).
"TRUST ME:"
Before this season, if you were paying attention, GOD was equipping you–He was preparing you because He knew the test time was coming. He knew His plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11), but He had to trust you with those plans first–that's what the test is. The silent season is a test to show you how much GOD can trust you with what He has planned for you.
In the silent season, GOD is trying to get you to see if you really have surrendered it all to Him, have you really been listening to His voice when He was teaching you, were you paying attention, were you being a good student?
In the silent season, GOD is showing you whether or not you have the faith that it takes to trust Him. He grows our faith in the silent season.
For Abraham, one of his silent seasons was when he was instructed to sacrifice his beloved son, Issac (Genesis 22). Abraham and his wife Sarah are both old in age, she's given birth to their only child after years of believing she could not conceive, GOD blesses her womb and they have Issac. Now, GOD tests Abraham and tells him to sacrifice Issac on Mount Moriah.
But Abraham trusted GOD.
As Abraham walked up Mount Moriah with his son Issac, GOD was silent. GOD did not give Abraham a heads up about how He was going to provide, He didn't tell Abraham to trust Him...but Abraham did so anyhow because of what GOD did before, and what GOD told Abraham before (Genesis 28:15). Even in GOD's silence while he was going up to Mount Moriah–even in his silent season–Abraham remained faithful, continued to get up and trusted GOD. And because Abraham trusted GOD, GOD provided.
And GOD will provide for you the same way He did for Abraham in your silent season, you just have to GET UP and TRUST HIM.
When you are confused on how to push through your silent season–when it seems like the voice of GOD is quiet–GET UP and TRUST HIM; He's growing your faith.
Praying for you in your silent season family,
Nic.
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