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PROGRAM D-7979
If you are experiencing the silence of God, you may have begun to believe that you must not be that important to God, that you must be a second-class Christian. After all, if God really loved you and you were special, why would he be silent? Why would your prayers go unanswered?
I want to encourage you not to believe the lie that God is silent because you are unworthy, unimportant, or second-class. In fact, it could mean just the opposite. It could mean that God’s footprints in your life right now are unseen for a reason: He is teaching you to trust him in new and deeper ways! Will you trust God to straighten out this mess in your life? Will you trust God to see you through the desert? Will you trust God, even when He says “No,” “Wait,” or “Not now”?
That’s what I call the Shadrach-Meshach-Abednego kind of trust. You remember the story from Daniel 3 of these three men who would not bow their knees to a false god. The wicked king told them they would be thrown into a fiery pit because they refused to worship the gold image. They said this to the king:
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).
When God seems silent and you can’t find his footprints in your life, you need to pray this even-if-he-doesn’t prayer. This is when your faith is tested. Even if God doesn’t deliver you as you think he should, will you refuse to doubt him but rather continue to worship him?
Remember that though you can’t see his footprint in your life right now, God has never taken his eye off of you and his ear is always open to your cry. Even if he doesn’t show himself the way you want, he is there and will never leave you or forsake you!