Volume 26, Number 1
rreach.org
Fall 2023
Chaos, cacophony, conflict. We’re immersed, inside and outside. And ironically, what we can’t hear, see or feel at all is what we need most: God Himself.
Can you identify?
Take heart, dear one. No matter your context, God is aware, God is there, and God cares. Read this refreshment of an article from Ramesh Richard’s archives for comfort, encouragement, and direction when God seems silent in the details of life.
THE SILENCE OF GOD
IN THE DETAILS OF LIFE
(2023 REFRESH)
Ramesh Richard
Sandra lost her two-year-old son a few months before her husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She wonders, “Does God know what is happening in my life?”
The family of an Indian pastor brutally butchered for the gospel asks in their abandonment, “Where is God right now?”
Michael’s engagement was broken off twice, and he is puzzled about what the future holds: “Can God convince my fiancée to go through with this marriage?”
These are different stanzas of the same ballad. We all want to know, “Does God play a direct role in the details of my life?” Most of us easily accept the hand of God in blessing. But it is far more difficult to recognize God’s hand in adversity. At some point in life, we all ask the same question in our own ways, “Why does God seem so silent in the details of life?”
As I pursue these most honest and personal questions, join me with your grief in one hand and your Bible in the other. We will ponder God’s knowledge of our circumstances, God’s presence in our grief, and God’s ability and desire to intervene in our lives.
… A God who is not aware of the details is not a good candidate for godhood or worship.
Question 1: Is God aware?
In the throes of grief, some may question whether God is even aware of our day-to-day issues. But a God who is not aware of the details is not a good candidate for godhood or worship. The Bible claims that the Christian God is very aware of the details of your life. How much more detailed can you get than to number the hairs on your head (Matthew 10:30)? He keeps count. He knows each one. He is a God of details—even the details we can not see, and especially the ones we cannot understand.
Don’t mistake God’s silence for ignorance.
Now, it is not just that God is aware of your difficulties. The Bible says that God has not forgotten you. My preacher father had a beautiful observation on God’s detail work. Two sparrows are sold for a penny in Matthew 10:29, and five sparrows are sold for two pennies in Luke 12:6. “God,” my dad would remind us, “is the God of the odd sparrow, the fifth sparrow, the bonus sparrow.” Yet Jesus said, “Not one of them is forgotten by God,” (Luke); “Not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father” (Matthew).
God takes exception to His people who think or feel that present distress displays God’s ignorance and forgetfulness. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast …? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands …” (Isaiah 49:15-16). What is God saying in these verses? He is reminding you that though you may feel He is not aware of your circumstances, you cannot trust that sentiment. He is a hair- numbering, sparrow-counting, hand-engraving God of the details. He is aware. Don’t mistake His silence for ignorance.
Question 2: Is God there?
It is certainly not enough to know that God is aware of the details. We also want to know that He is there with us in these details. Our first question related to God’s ignorance. This question relates to God’s absence. Has God become too busy with problems much bigger than the ones I have? Why is He not here? Why can’t I see Him?
These questions are legitimate and sincere. From our perspective, our problems are so large and so close that our focus is on them. We also deal with an invisible God. We seem to have no tangible proof of His presence. Having to choose between the problems we see and a God we don’t see, we question His presence with us in the details of our lives.
Having to choose between the problems we see and a God we don’t see, we question His presence with us in the details of our lives.
Open your Bible and consider God’s affirmations about His presence with you. The unequivocal declaration of the Jesus who never changes is, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5, 8 NASB). “I am with you” and “I go with you” are consistent refrains in the Old Testament (Genesis 26:24; 28:15; Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:5; Isaiah 41:10; 43:2). The sheer number of times that He assures His people of His presence compels us to include His presence as part of our total perspective on our present reality.
I have not forgotten the witness of a Fijian Indian brother and friend who has not had an easy life. His father died while he was still young. His brother was killed in a collision. Another car wreck sent a younger brother into a lengthy coma and a three-year depression. Soon after, the brother’s wife died in a traffic accident. Within my friend’s culture, the entire responsibility of his extended family fell to him. But his response was one full of biblical confidence: “God was there,” he told me. “He was there the whole time.”
Don’t confuse God’s silence for absence.
Can you cling to this truth too? God is there, my friend. He is there the whole time. Don’t confuse His silence for absence.
The sheer number of times that He assures His people of His presence compels us to include His presence as part of our total perspective on our present reality.
Question 3: Does God care?
God is a God of details and a God in details; but how does this play out? How do I know He cares? Often, I am willing to believe He is aware and is there, but I have no solid way to interpret His inaction. If He is not plagued by inertia, perhaps He is just impotent. Is there a good explanation for why an omniscient and loving God wouldn’t intervene unless He is also powerless? Does God care enough to use His almighty power to obliterate the obstacles I face? His promises can seem empty.
Let’s examine our questions with an open Bible again. These are difficult issues. Philosophical theology has discussed these questions for millennia. Only the beginnings of an answer are available, but they are adequate. Here are five things to remember:
First, God cares for creation, history, all people together, and especially for you individually. God knows individuals (Jeremiah 1:5), selects them for salvation and adoption (Ephesians 1), and plans their days before they exist (Psalm 139:16). God was involved with you prenatally. You are a special conception and a unique creation (Psalm 139:13; Isaiah 44:2). Since He put you together, He is deeply involved in your earthly existence. Plainly, the Bible says, “He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Other “care” ideas in Scripture include being caught, covered, and carried by God in this life. He is able to provide for your needs (Philippians 4:19) and guide you (Colossians 1:9,10).
Second, God cares for you enough to guide you in the middle of life’s most demanding situations. While He may not remove you from the situation, He will guide you in every such situation until your last day (Psalm 48:14). His Scripture will guide you when you walk, will watch over you while you sleep, will speak to you when you are awake (Proverbs 6:22). Our responsibility is to pray that God will show us His way, guide us in His truth, and teach us His paths (Psalm 25:5).
Your contentment in circumstantial difficulties is as much evidence of God’s power as would be His extraordinary intervention.
Third, we should ask God specifically, urgently, and expectantly to intervene in our lives. Don’t give up on God, for He certainly hasn’t given up on you. If God still doesn’t choose to intervene in the way you want Him to, it is not because He doesn’t care. It is because He wants you to care about what He cares about. Paul’s struggle with the thorn in his flesh is a reminder of this truth (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). He did not doubt God’s ability to remove this thorn. Neither should we. He asked specifically, urgently, and expectantly for his thorn to be removed. So should we. But Paul became content with God’s answer in this situation (v. 10). Your contentment in circumstantial difficulties is as much evidence of God’s power as would be His extraordinary intervention.
Fourth, we need to rethink the basis for our disappointment with God’s lack of performance in our lives. Pragmatic people that we are, we evaluate God on how well He delivers for us. We forget who answers to whom. We also place conditions on when He delivers. We believe in action on demand, now and immediately. We forget God is on His own timetable. And sometimes He does what we want, while at other times He is silent, befuddling us.
We are also heavily oriented to modern “entitlement” concepts. We think we have the right to dictate how good our circumstances should be. We are disappointed when we don’t get what we believe are basic rights. These errant thoughts are egocentric. God is not a giant pizza delivery service or a customer service department. Perhaps some of our frustration would diminish if we stopped waiting for God to meet or exceed our standards.
Fifth, God pursues a long-range, Kingdom strategy in every situation. He is very interested in shaping you into His model for spiritual excellence, Jesus Christ. God takes your circumstance and works out the details according to this long-range, Kingdom-purpose, inner- quality orientation. We cannot overlook the clear claim of Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (NASB).
When you cry asking for God to intervene in your details right now, you may face His silence…His silence doesn’t mean ignorance, absence, or impotence.
Paul claims that Christians already know that truth. An impotent God could not cause all things to work together for the good of His children. It takes omnipotence to do that! Don’t misconstrue His silence to be His impotence.
Long-Range Kingdom Perspective
We only know the edges of God’s ways in specific human experience. But Scripture is most encouraging in this regard. Joseph’s testimony—after a long history with a dysfunctional family, betrayal, false accusation, and imprisonment – is “you meant evil against me, but God meant is for good” (Genesis 50:20). I cannot give an emotionally satisfying answer to the family of the Indian pastor who was brutally martyred; however, the hundreds of people who converted to Christ because of his witness in death form the beginnings of the answer. If Stephen had not died, would Saul have become Paul (Acts 7-9)? God taking away Naomi’s husband and son in 10 short years is not fully explainable during her bitter sorrow. However, the long-range, Kingdom purpose of Ruth being Christ’s forebear begins to yield meaning eventually (Ruth 4 and Matthew 1).
An impotent God could not work all things together for the good of His children. It takes omnipotence to do that!
Our son Ryan, when 8, got in trouble with his mother. She overheard his grief as he lay on his stomach, hugged his pillow, and bellowed, “Daddy, Daddy, I need somebody to care for me. I need Daddy right now.” Away on an overseas trip, I was ignorant of his trouble, absent in his circumstance, and impotent to do anything for him. When you cry asking for God to intervene in your details right now, you may face His silence. But I am glad to confirm that in God’s case, His silence doesn’t mean ignorance, absence, or impotence. He is aware, He is there, and He does care.
When you are paralyzed by difficult circumstances, abandon yourself on truths that are just as real as your crisis: God is aware, He is there, and He cares. God actively works out all the details of your life. When you arrive at the final destination, you will look back and say, “Ah, I see!” And you will fall on your face at the feet of an almighty, loving God who permitted evil and promoted good while providentially working evil and good for your best and His glory.
Ramesh Richard, Ph.D., Th.D.
A theologian-evangelist, philosopher- expositor, educator and author, Ramesh Richard holds a Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary and Ph.D. from the University of Delhi. He serves as president of RREACH, a global proclamation ministry, and as Professor of Global Theological Engagement and Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Richard travels the world clarifying the message of the Bible to audiences from pre-Christian opinion leaders in professional settings to poor pastoral leaders in rural areas, from gatherings of a few to crowds of a hundred thousand. He has trained thousands of church leaders in more than 100 countries to preach, live, and think biblically.