In years past, I was incredibly disciplined with my morning time with God. Every day I read a devotional, wrote in my prayer journal, and spent time in prayer.
Good job, right?
Then one day…I stopped.
Why? I honestly have no idea.
I skipped a few days, which turned into a few weeks, and before I knew it, I had completely fallen out of the habit. Months passed before I even realized what had happened.
Once I did, I tried to get back into my old rhythm.
It never happened.
It’s been five years. Yes—five.
I’ve tried journals, devotionals, podcasts—you name it. They’ve all been good, but none of them grabbed me. I wanted something that pulled me in the way a great murder mystery does, where you can’t wait to read the next chapter. I know it’s God’s Word, and I know I should always be drawn to it. But if I’m being honest, I often found myself bored, distracted, and unfocused.
And the more I drifted away, the quieter God seemed.
Now, this may sound a little superficial but stay with me here. God has always used ordinary people, ordinary moments, and unexpected things to get our attention.
So in March, while I was mindlessly scrolling Facebook (such a productive use of time… insert eye roll), I stumbled across one of Farmer Girl’s blogs.
Something about it stopped me.
Her perspective on Scripture. The words she chose. Her insight. Her writing style. Her humor. It all resonated with me.
But more importantly, it stirred something that had been missing for a long time.
It nudged me back toward my morning devotionals. It led me back to God’s Word. And before long, God wasn’t quiet anymore. He was loud again.
Looking back, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
Just as we were entering a season where we desperately needed to hear His voice—to know He was present and listening to our prayers—God had already been drawing me back to Him.
So, of course, here is Farmer Girl’s take on the subject.
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I don’t think this question gets talked about enough because most Christians assume they’re the only one asking it.
Why does God seem silent?
It’s one thing to believe God hears prayer. It’s another thing to keep praying when it feels like the only sound you’re hearing is your neighbor mowing the lawn, your refrigerator making weird noises, or your own thoughts going in circles. You know God can answer. You know He does answer prayer. But sometimes you keep praying about the same situation for weeks, months, or even years, and heaven feels awfully quiet. If you’ve ever wondered where God is in the middle of all that, you’re certainly not the first person to ask.
The Bible is surprisingly honest about this feeling. David asked, “How long, O Lord?” more than once. Job spent chapter after chapter wondering where God was. Habakkuk looked around at the mess his nation was in and essentially said, “Lord…are You seeing what I’m seeing?” Even John the Baptist, the man who pointed at Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” eventually sent messengers asking, “Are You really the One?” If those people had moments where God felt quiet, maybe we shouldn’t panic when we do too. Feeling like God is silent isn’t proof your faith is weak. Sometimes it’s simply proof you’re human.
Here’s where I think we get ourselves into trouble. We assume that if we can’t see God working, then He must not be working. But that’s not how life works anywhere else, is it? Think about all the things happening right now that you can’t see. Your heart is beating without asking your permission. Your immune system is identifying bacteria and viruses like tiny security guards that never take a coffee break. Millions of cells are dividing, repairing, replacing, and cleaning up old tissue. You don’t wake up every morning and tell your liver it’s time to get to work. Your body is constantly working behind the scenes whether you notice it or not. Creation is full of invisible work producing visible results.
The same thing happens on a farm all the time. A newborn calf can look perfectly healthy while her immune system is quietly learning how to fight off the germs she’s meeting for the first time. A field can look completely lifeless in the winter while everything underneath the surface is getting ready for spring. If you’ve ever planted seeds, you know there’s this period where it looks like absolutely nothing is happening. You water dirt. That’s basically your hobby for a while. If you got impatient and dug the seed up every morning to check whether it was growing, congratulations…you’ve just successfully killed the plant. Growth often happens where nobody can see it.
I sometimes wonder if we do the same thing with God. We pray on Monday. By Tuesday we’re already checking to see if He’s done yet. Wednesday we start wondering if He heard us. Thursday we’re considering sending a follow up prayer because maybe the first one got lost. By Friday we’re politely reminding the Creator of the universe that this situation is becoming a bit inconvenient for us. If we’re really honest, most of us don’t struggle with believing God can answer prayer. We struggle with believing His schedule is better than ours.
The funny thing is that God has never once been in a hurry. Not one time in all of Scripture do you find God saying, “Well…I didn’t want to wait this long, but I got behind this week.” Abraham waited decades for Isaac. Joseph received dreams from God and then spent years as a slave and in prison before they made any sense. Israel waited four hundred years in Egypt. Then humanity waited another four hundred years between the Old and New Testaments before Jesus was born. Four hundred years. Meanwhile, I start wondering what’s taking so long if my online order hasn’t shipped within twenty-four hours. Somewhere along the way we’ve become convinced that two-day shipping should also apply to God’s timing.
One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn is that silence and absence are not the same thing. Think about a teacher giving a test. During the lesson the teacher talks constantly. During the test the room gets quiet. The silence doesn’t mean the teacher left the building. It means the teacher is watching to see whether the students will trust what they’ve already learned. God often works the same way. When He seems quiet, He usually isn’t asking us to discover brand new truth. He’s asking us to keep trusting the truth He’s already given us.
Isaiah 40:31 says, “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.” Waiting has never been anyone’s favorite hobby. I’ve never met someone who said, “You know what I really hope I get to practice this year? More waiting.” We like answers. We like plans. We like knowing where we’re headed. God, however, seems remarkably comfortable telling us just enough for today’s step instead of handing us a five-year itinerary. Maybe that’s because if He showed us the whole road, we’d either sprint ahead of Him or spend the next six months worrying about things that aren’t even today’s problem.
So if God feels silent right now, don’t mistake quietness for abandonment. Keep praying even when you don’t immediately see results. Keep reading Scripture even when it feels ordinary. Keep obeying what you already know instead of waiting for a brand new revelation. One day you’ll probably look back and realize that the season you thought God wasn’t doing anything was actually the season He was doing some of His best work. He wasn’t ignoring you. He was growing roots before He grew fruit. And if God is growing roots, don’t be in too much of a hurry. Trees with deep roots are the ones that stay standing when the storms finally show up.
Stand strong in the storm, my friends.
For God and you,
Deb Bostwick
Blogger, Single Adult Ministry