Dangerous Faith
Dangerous Faith is a ministry that strives to light a fire inside of Everyday Christians to live radically for Christ so that we can glorify God by advancing His Kingdom.
Dangerous Faith
#50: Dangerous Life– Why Is God Silent?
The Dangerous Life Team talks about why God sometimes seems silent and distant. Has that ever happened to you? What did you do? They swap stories and give advice on what to do in these situations.
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Welcome to the Dangerous Faith podcast. I have the Dangerous Life team with me here, myself, nate Williams, justin, mariah for the first time. So, mariah, welcome to the show. Chloe and Zeke Glad to have my friends here talking about something that happens to all of us as believers, I think, where we reach out to God and we pray and we ask questions and sometimes it seems like God is quiet. God is silent, he's not there, he feels far away. Well, what do we do in those situations? What happens? What's the next step? And so that's what we'll be talking about in today's episode slash video, but anyways, I'll pass it to the team. Has there ever been a story, a time in your life where this has happened to you? It could be a specific story or a season where you were trying to get wisdom from God and it just seemed like he wasn't answering, at least in a noticeable way to you. It seemed like he was far away, things were quiet, and if so, what ended up happening? Does anyone want to share?
Speaker 2:Okay, I can't, like I said, say a specific instance. Thank you, Nate. I can't say a specific instance or anything like that, but I can say that I've been through seasons where I've I don't really hear a voice of God. I more feel a almost a strong pull in my chest, and when I when I feel that it tells me to right or wrong.
Speaker 1:So sorry, Okay, can you choked up? It's emotional.
Speaker 2:Yes, but in those seasons where I don't feel that, I know predominantly it's because I'm living in sin and doing sinful acts and not repenting for it. It's typically the reason. So oftentimes you need to take a deep look at yourself when you are doing these things.
Speaker 1:There's wisdom there. I remember from 1 Peter, chapter three, I think it's verse seven, where Peter talks about husbands in particular. So the context is marriage. But if husbands are not treating their wives correctly, their wives well, that their prayers are hindered. And I thought that was really interesting, that, yes, our behavior does affect our prayer life, that if we're living in sin sometimes, that that just can hinder our prayer life. So I think that's a good point, justin.
Speaker 2:Thank you for picking apart my bumbling mess and finding meaning out of it.
Speaker 1:No, it was very good. And anyone else thought seasons, stories that you want to share.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can share one. So mine was around when COVID first hit in March of 2020, when the world was kind of going crazy and things were shutting down. Basically, I was in my freshman year of college, trying to get the best college experience. Of course, I was also still in like my long season of singleness. I haven't even like dated or talked to anybody like for almost a year probably.
Speaker 1:Not even your parents. She was not talking to anyone. I was not talking to any boys to pursue a romantic relationship. Go on, go on. It was a bad joke.
Speaker 4:No, you're good. So I remember when we got sent home from COVID, I was honestly just really angry at God because I was like how could you allow this to happen? I'm not even going to get to like see my friends anymore that I had just made a few months before. I'm not going to get to meet any potential future husbands. Like you know, of course, we think that, but and honestly I just felt like God was silent for a while, like probably a couple months, like maybe two or three months. I just felt like none of my prayers were being answered because things just seem to be getting worse and worse with the world shutting down. And then, after that little period, I could see a lot of good things coming out of it, Like I met my future husband through I got one of them, zeke is an answer to prayer for all of us.
Speaker 1:Amen no but go on, I wouldn't have met him.
Speaker 4:If it wouldn't have been for COVID, I wouldn't have gotten close with y'all, I wouldn't have met y'all at all. I don't know if I would have at all, really honestly, but yeah, so God definitely was working, even in the silence.
Speaker 1:I like that God's working when it doesn't seem like that from our standpoint. Zeke, do you have any thoughts?
Speaker 3:I have a more recent experience with this in the sense that I felt the urge of, I wasn't sure where my life was headed, in the sense that I didn't know what I wanted to do or where God wanted me to be. I'm currently in school for engineering and I wasn't sure if he wanted me to go through that and do that for the rest of my life and I was okay if that was the case. But if he wanted me to do something else, I wanted to know and I wanted to be more open to that. And I prayed about that honestly every single night. For I want to say like it felt like three or four months it may have been less, but I prayed about that every single night. I reached out to council and I wasn't getting an answer.
Speaker 3:But eventually I kind of came to the point where, even though I still haven't been given an answer, I was like I'm not have peace about whatever decide, whatever happens. I've decided that if God hasn't given me an answer or give me some specific Voice to tell me to do something differently, then I'm gonna stay on the path he has me on and then, whenever an opportunity comes up and I feel like it's from him, I'll take the opportunity, but in the meantime I have peace. If he wants me to do what I'm doing now, awesome, praise God. If he decides to, let me finish and then get right there to where I raise, do engineering for the rest of my life and he's like no, we're gonna change the lanes. Like okay, I guess we're doing that now.
Speaker 1:Yes, we're doing that now. Yeah, that's that. There's a lot of peace there. I have been trying to Push him into ministry and so we'll keep you updated on that, but anyways that he serves his church in a lot of wonderful ways.
Speaker 2:But any, any more, any more thoughts, anything y'all want to share, justin, something to add on to what you just said, z, because personally that's something I've struggled with for a long time is if I'm doing the Right thing that God wants me to be doing. I Now think it's less of it. For some people he may show you specifically. This is where I want you career-wise, but I think more God will use you wherever you are for, whatever his purpose may be, so I don't think we need to stress as much over oh my gosh, am I doing the right thing? As long as you're following what the scripture says, you're, I think you're good. But there is a lot of anxiety about that stuff. I know because I felt it personally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think that's something that's very common with our age group, especially now. It's always a concern of when does God want me? What's he, you know? Am I following God's Will for my life or his plan for my life? I think those are good questions.
Speaker 3:I think there's good intent in asking those questions, but I think, like what Justin is saying is, the Bible doesn't lay out what every single person's going to do for the rest of their lives, at every single moment. I think it's for good reason. I think he wants us to use wisdom and to read a scripture and to Use friends and counsel to decide those things. He doesn't want to have to do everything for us, same way that Perry doesn't want to have to know do everything for their kid. They want to eventually have that kid grow up and become their own person and make their own decisions. So I think this is healthy to be able to. You know what God's not giving me a specific plan.
Speaker 3:But let me look at what I'm doing. Is it ungodly? Is it sinful? The answers are no. And Can I use it to praise God and to serve others? Answers yes. Okay, cool, and that could apply to a Numerous amounts of things. I don't think there's any one specific thing unless God calls you to that thing, and it's clear. If he hasn't called you to it, then as long as you can answer and say well, I'm not in sin, I'm not doing something bad and I'm doing my best, serve God and serve others, I think you're good.
Speaker 1:Serve God wherever you are and whatever is available to you, because I have heard this so many. So I've worked with young adults for for years at this point and we have a lot of excuses. I know I do as well that you. Oh, I'm not gifted in this specific area. Oh, god has not tapped me on the shoulder and shown me a sign like oh, do this ministry. Just serve where there's an opening. Zeke, you're really good at talking about this. If there's an opening, go for it. Yes, there are the mountaintop moments. We all love those where God just speaks something into your heart. Those are powerful. We love that. But oftentimes it's through an opening, an open door, a chance hey, come check out this or go, try that and you find like, oh, that was open for a reason, and then we step in and serve. But any thoughts? Questions Mariah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, actually I have something to kind of jump off that I think we do get caught up in so many things in our life, like, oh, occupations, or am I going to do this? Is this what God wants from me? Like you said, the big mountaintops, like, oh, like I want to be a missionary or preacher. But if you're just talking to an elderly person at Walmart and you change their day and change the rest of their week, you don't know. You know the impact you can do on a daily basis. So that's yeah, yes that is powerful.
Speaker 1:Mariah, we do. We want the big stuff, want the big stuff and, yes, when that happens, that's great, but it's faithfulness in the little things that really shows our walk with God. So, for instance, how do we treat waiters and waitresses? How do we treat cashiers? If there's someone, a friend, who's distraught, in a tough time, do we take the time to listen to them, give them a phone call, go visit them if appropriate, go serve wherever you are, be a good neighbor, be a good coworker, be light, be encouraging, stand for truth boldly when necessary. Those are things that we can do day to day, even if it's not the oh, I'm going to serve as a missionary in Africa or China or somewhere, though that stuff's important too, is he?
Speaker 3:Yeah, going off of that, I think we really undervalue the small things, like you know, the cashier at Walmart or the greeter, in the sense of for you to have been shared, the fit for someone to have shared the gospel with you took like the person who was shared it with you, and then whoever shared it with them, who are shared it with them. You go back and back and back to like it was someone sometime long ago that eventually led up to you getting shared to obviously Jesus, but after Jesus.
Speaker 3:You know, it took a lot of people getting shared the gospel to eventually get to you. So, like you share it with one person could multiply to thousands upon thousands of people who would hear the gospel just cause you shared it with one person. Think of like the great evangelist, like Billy Graham and other ones have been in recent decades, like they've shared to thousands of people but someone had to share it with them. Had that one person not shared it with them, they never found out. Those thousands of people may not have ever heard, possibly, yeah, so you never know.
Speaker 1:You, you never know. So be faithful where you are. And this goes back into you're like what does this have to do with God being silent? Sometimes, god silence is a time for us to be content with her place. That we do always want that next thing, that, all right, we want to complete high school. For those of us who go to college, well, we want to complete college. And then you get your job, then it's promotion and you live for the next vacation, you live for the next, the next, the next have kids, retirement, and we're not content with the stage of life that God has us. And so, god, sometimes being silent is a lesson in patience and contentment. That you are where you need to be and I will let you know when you need to be moved, but for now, serve where you are. I think those are good lessons to think through.
Speaker 1:Any other thoughts, comments, questions or I'll move on to the next part. So on the other side of the coin I going at this from from two different sides A friend goes to you and says hey, I'm just not hearing anything from God. Like, I want God to speak and answer this question. I want God to show me that. What would you say to a friend because I know we might have some listeners who who are asking that question right now what would you say to a friend that went to you and had those kinds of questions? What advice and wisdom would you give them?
Speaker 2:I would say to kind of bounce off what I said earlier. I think you need to really be able to sit there and have some self-reflection on Okay, are the things that I'm doing Godly things? Am I behaving the way that God asked, in a basic sense, of all of us to act? And a good way to check yourself is are you following, or at least around, what the 10 commandments are asking you to do? Yeah, and if you want to get even smaller than that, are we following the two commandments Jesus asked us to do? Because oftentimes I can say, one of the biggest hangups for people, myself included, is when I'm angry at someone, I'm not following the love thy neighbor as they self, because I want to hit them with crowbar.
Speaker 1:Yes, hit them with a crowbar or other objects, whatever's available Only crowbars. Only crowbars. Justin carries those around everywhere. Zeke, do you have any thoughts there? No, no, chloe.
Speaker 4:I think the first thing I would tell them is that it's normal, because they might feel like they're alone and thinking that God is silent, but it's normal and even think back to the Bible, when God was quote unquote silent for like 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Or you think, to Job, when, well, we don't know like the time frame on this, but God didn't even speak to Job until the 38th chapter and there's 42 chapters in Job, so he didn't speak to Job for quite a while, which would probably be silence to Joe.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 4:And then the next thing I would do is I would ask them okay, well, have you been? Have you been reading the Bible? Because God literally gave us the Bible as his word to speak to us. Yeah, so if you go into reading the Bible, praying and asking God for wisdom, understanding, guidance, all those good things, he'll show stuff to you and he'll speak to you.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:It might not be exactly like the exact answer you're looking for, because obviously the Bible, like Zeke was saying earlier, it doesn't lay out every perfect scenario, but he will speak to you.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think so, I think so, zeke.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I finally thought of something.
Speaker 1:Hey, there we go.
Speaker 3:I just needed Chloe to jog my memory. So, even going even further, in the Bible you have Jesus, who he's constantly, continually praying to God for guidance and wisdom, and we believe Jesus is God. So, Jesus, being who he is, needs to pray to God. How much more do we need to pray to God more often? And then you take your theologian. So correct me where I'm wrong, sir.
Speaker 1:We're all theologians, zeke. All Christians are theologians.
Speaker 3:You're the professional theologian here.
Speaker 3:So, about that one but you have Jesus on the cross where he's quoting Isaiah and he says uh, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So, even the sense that there's times Like I assume in that sense he meant that he felt distant from God, even though he even got himself. So if he can feel distant from God, it must be something common, like with Job, like with almost just any other character, David Solomon, there's been plenty of characters in the Bible who felt like God wasn't near, and we get to hear about their times and struggles. And I think, as Christians, what I would advise. Back to the question of what would I do if I had someone come up to me and ask me that? Well, one I would probably dig down into the question of what is they're asking about? Okay, well, has this been answered by Scripture? And if the answer is no, okay, what can we do next? I think we can read Scripture still and say like, look, here's all these other people who didn't have answers.
Speaker 3:Think of Joseph. I think it's Joseph who got the code of many colors and he's sold into slavery. He went through decades without an answer and then he got all the way to the end and he's like you know what God was working in all of it this whole time. So it's all a matter of perspective. The good thing about us reading the Bible is we get the perspective. At the end of Job, we know that what's coming at chapter 38, job doesn't. We know what's happening in Genesis 50. Joseph doesn't. But the same with our lives. The only difference is we don't know what's going to happen in chapter 50 of our lives or whatever. So we just have to be faithful in the meantime.
Speaker 1:That's a great analogy and I'm going to just repeat what you said, that we all have a book of our life. Don't know how long the book goes, don't know how many chapters and pages, but we can't see ahead. We're in chapter whatever year we're in. Let's just break it down by years that God is writing a story of your life. You can't get to the end of it yet. You will one day, I think you know end of Ecclesiastes is a classic example of that. Like I've lived my life and at the end obey God and follow his commandments and fear him, we don't know what's at the end of our story.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And to add on to that in the sense of so, in the meantime we do the same thing that a child does or learns to do with their parents. You know, the first day of school they drop them off and their big fears oh my mom's leaving me, my dad's leaving me. They're never come back for me. But over time they go to school every day and they see that their parents come back by every day and pick them up and eventually, over time, they start to trust that their parents are going to come back every time. I think God does the same for us, in the sense that he calls us his children. I think for a reason. And over time, if we look back at the previous chapters of our life to keep this analogy going we can see all the times he's been faithful, like that song you've been so, so faithful, you've been so, so good, yeah.
Speaker 1:The goodness of.
Speaker 3:God. Yeah, we can see over the course of our life how good God's been to us and we use that to be like okay, well, if he's been good every single time up until now. Sorry, justin, I started doing your table thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if he's been good to us every single time up until now.
Speaker 3:why would he stop? If he's unchanging? He's always the same. What's going to make him stop being good now? Why should we not trust him now?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that when God is seems far away, when God seems quiet, it feels quiet and we don't know where he is. That God is right next to us, he's always present, he's always walking with us, even when it doesn't seem like that. That's hard to know. Let me think of the example of a parent again a good analogy that sometimes the parent lets the child go do things on his own or her own and the child looks around sometimes for mom or dad say, hey, I need some help, but the parent knows the child can do it. Say, hey, take some time. I've given you the tools and the training you can figure it out. Then eventually there's a conclusion of the story that it goes and it's a learning moment that hey, it's going to be okay, mom and dad has you. Sometimes you've got to figure some things out, but at the end of the story he's good with parental guidance. But anyway, any other bits of advice or wisdom, mariah?
Speaker 5:I was just going to say this is kind of what Zeke and Chloe were when you mentioned perspective. I think that's a very like and, looking at the chapters of your life, like you may not realize the faithfulness of God and what he had said to you at some time period. Then you look back and you're like, wow, like he took me from this place or he saved me from this, or like I didn't go here instead of here. I think that's really important that you don't really realize sometimes in the moment, more in another chapter you realize it, which is, I think, kind of cool to see.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely. I think back to my life that I was going to potentially go to Liberty University and my life would have been very different had I gone there. Instead I went to Towson University. So just a school choice example. I went to Towson. I think of seminary. I went to a seminary in Birmingham called Beeson. The other option was Westminster and Pennsylvania. I'm like, wow, my life would have been very different in that way. I would have never gone to meet all of you wonderful people who drive me crazy, but anyways, I hope that did not affect anything. No, I think we're good, okay, good, but regardless, you look back, mariah, and you see God's been faithful, he's been good. I could have done this, I did this, it led to that. And we then take the faithfulness of our own story, god in our story, and we share that with those around us. That God will be faithful for you as well. Any other thoughts, comments, questions, chloe.
Speaker 4:So something I was thinking about and I'd probably be willing to argue this point I think that God always answers your prayer, but it might not be in the answer that you're hoping for. God might say yes, and he might grant you your desire. He might say no and he'll give you something completely different or nothing at all. Or he might just say what? A little longer, because I don't know. I just feel like there's never a time like if you think God is silent. He might just be saying wait. Or if you end up getting something completely different than what you had hoped for, he's saying no. So I don't know. I feel like would you all agree?
Speaker 1:I think so. God always answers prayers.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, trust and disagrees, I think to a certain extent, because Justin, are you saying God does not exist?
Speaker 2:No, I'll say it, though I think that God can leave you alone to ponder on what you're doing for a while. So I would not say it's necessarily fair to say that God will always answer, and maybe I guess you could kind of see, in a way, how the silence is an answer to If you really wanted to stretch it out a bit. But I don't know, I don't think it's necessarily fair to people to say that if they're feeling God is not answering their prayers, their feelings invalid is kind of how. I would say that, not to bash what you're saying, because it seems to fit in how you feel, but I think we need to be careful how we put that though, Chloe Justin aggressively bashed what you were saying yes, yes, wow, yes, do you have a?
Speaker 1:response Chloe.
Speaker 4:No, I mean, I think that's fair.
Speaker 1:I think that's fair. I think built into your answer it does handle that that sometimes it's waiting and being patient as well. That can be a sort of answer until you get the full one, if that makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 5:That's actually crazy that you say that, because I was like thinking kind of exactly what you said earlier, with some differences, kind of what Justin was saying. I think it kind of depends if it's in God's will. If you're like, oh, I want a big old mansion and a rich husband, I don't think he's going to be like, okay, you'll get that If it's not in his what he wants for your life. So I think there's things like that.
Speaker 1:If Bailey prayed for those things, god's answer was no, definitely for sure. No, you're right, it does depend, praying within God's will, that we have to be careful of selfishness, sin. What do I want? Is it my will be done or thy being God's, god's will be done? Things we do need to check when we pray. But anyways, any other thoughts on this? If someone asks you, just God seems far away, justin, I will go back to your point on sin. Sometimes we need to check our lifestyles. Right that maybe God would love to speak with us in some way, shape or form, through the word, through life, through friends, through church, through preaching. But we're just not doing a good job of listening. So sometimes we say, hey, god, you seem so far away. And God's like hey, just check to see if you have anything. Plug in your ears Because I am trying to talk to you. Things to consider, zeke, any thoughts?
Speaker 3:Something I was thinking about earlier. Spoiler alert insider baseball Nate gives us the questions ahead of time because he doesn't trust us to answer them on the spot, Not true?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I didn't get mine.
Speaker 3:I was going to say mine Tay beforehand.
Speaker 1:Mariah was in the sports analogy, a last minute add-on to the team. She came in, she had a knife and she said if I'm not on this episode, all of you make sure you're right with Jesus, but just kidding. Now glad to have Mariah with us. Go on, zeke.
Speaker 3:The thing I was thinking about is it seems to be implying whenever we're complaining about God being silent, what are we really wanting? Are we wanting Him to constantly be in communication with us and talking to us 24-7, guiding every little action that we do and every time we start going down the wrong path? Him but no verbally telling us hey, stop doing that. Good, this way, I think some of us would say initially yeah, that's what I want, I won't tell me every little thing to do, I don't have to think about it anymore, I'll just do that.
Speaker 3:In reality, though, I don't think very many of us would actually want that, and even in the sense of what we were talking about with kids earlier, if you're a parent, you don't want to have to do that for your child. You want your child at first, you want to, you want to help them, you want to guide them, you want to protect them from danger, but eventually you want them to do their own thing and to grow up and to still love you, still care for you, but to become their own person and not become more like in the sense of God. We won't become more like Him. He wants us, he creates the way we are for a reason. He wants us to be our own individual person but at the same time, worship Him out of our own free will.
Speaker 1:I think that's good. Zeke's analogy game is on fire today. Just comparisons that, yeah, we don't want. Like a parent, you don't want to do everything for your kid, you want to give them foundation so that they can go and do the right things, obviously with a healthy relationship between you and them. But you know that's good. And anyone else? Any other thoughts before we take this home? Chloe?
Speaker 4:I got one more. I think also it's important to remember that our feelings don't determine the strength of our relationship with God, because just if we feel like we're alone, just if we feel like we're alone and God's not there and he's not listening to us, his silence doesn't determine, doesn't mean he's absent. He's always there, he's always working. It's like what it says. What is it? Walk by faith and not by sight. So, even though you can't see Him, you have to just trust that he's there and he's already like 10 million steps ahead of where we are.
Speaker 1:I like that your faith is not based on how you feel. It's so important.
Speaker 1:They're like man, I'm happy I'm close to God. Oh man, I'm sad God hates me. It's like no, that's not. There can be a lot of just different things that factor into the way we feel. That was a good point, chloe, all right, anything else. So if you're out there, you're wondering. I think there's been a lot of good wisdom and advice the team's given. Just don't give up. Continue to push, continue to pray, continue to read your Bible, be thinking, seek advice, seek counsel. Sometimes God speaks through friends. Sometimes God speaks through accountability partners. Sometimes they tell us things that we might not think of necessarily ourselves. So just a lot of good aspects there that God is with us, even when it doesn't always feel that way.
Speaker 3:If you have any questions, you can send them directly to Nate and he will answer every single question.
Speaker 1:Goodness, the team will answer questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, feel free to reach out, but mainly Nate, mainly Nate.
Speaker 1:We are on Facebook, instagram, twitter. We have a YouTube channel, rumble channel. Feel free to reach out email comment, whatever it looks like for you If you have anything specifically we want to cover. Also, check out our website, dangerousfaithnet. A lot of good information there. A blog as well. So, yeah, y'all, thank you for joining us today, joining this video, and we will come out with more videos as time goes by.
Speaker 5:We'll talk with you later. Bye.