“Now in those days, messages from the Lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon.” – 1 Samuel 3:1 NLT

Have you ever looked around this world or at the circumstances surrounding your life and wondered where God is?  Have you longed for His goodness to intervene, His guidance to be clear, or for Him to shed some light on why He has allowed certain things to unfold?

Have you asked questions like this and heard no answer?  Has it felt like God just decided to abandon you and your circumstances – leaving you all alone, in the dark, and wondering what to do next?

I’ve thought a lot about these questions lately myself and I am wondering if you find yourself asking the same kinds of questions as you survey the landscape of your own life. 

When I look at world events, it seems as if God has left us to our own devices – basically leaving the human race to fend for itself.  Greed, selfishness, impatience, and intolerance seem to be on the rise – clear evidence that God is distant and far away from it all. 

I have friends and family who are suffering – good, God-fearing people, who are longing for God to enter their circumstances, to give them grace and mercy, to make sense of the horrible events that have unfolded in their lives, yet God cannot be found. 

The uncertainty continues, the pain isn’t alleviated, and the peace that comes with understanding why things are happening as they are isn’t present or discernable.  It’s as if God has decided to sit on His hands, keep His mouth shut, and turn His gaze away from all the hurt, confusion, and despair.

As I contemplated these questions during the past week, the Bible verse I shared at the beginning of this article came to mind.  Maybe what was going on back then (in the days of Samuel) might shed some light on why God seems so distant now.

As I studied and looked at this verse in a deeper way, I found that Bible scholars believe this period of God’s silence lasted about 300 years.  The Matthew Henry Commentary says, “The word of the Lord was precious in those days. It was precious, for what there was (it seems) was private.” 

Many scholars believe that it wasn’t God who walked away from Israel, but the people themselves who walked away from God.

God says, “Be courageous and unafraid for I am with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) and “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5) and “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).  These are the promises of God Himself!

God is holy and righteous, meaning He can never break one of His promises.  So, if that is the case, God can never walk out on us.  We must be the ones walking away.

How does this apply to you and your personal situation?  How have you walked away from God?  When it seemed like God was nowhere to be found, did you decide to give up on Him?  Did you decide to let go and face things yourself?

Now don’t misinterpret me!

I don’t mean “walking away from God” through sin or leading a sinful life or by being disobedient, because many of the personal hardships I see where my friends and family members experience God’s silence, indifference, or lack of concern (a miscarriage, a spouse who walked out, an unexpected terminal illness, a difficult child, parental abandonment, the death of someone dear to you, the heavy weight of dealing with an addiction, financial pressure, loneliness, a difficult divorce, chronic health issues, etc.) have nothing to do with the kind of person they are or their personal behavior.

And another thing, everyone sins and that sin has ALREADY BEEN TAKEN CARE OF THROUGH GOD’S GRACE AND CHRIST’S SACRAFICE.  The Bible says that sin no longer separates us from God (Romans 8:1-4), so when I refer to “walking away from God”  I am not implying you are evil, sinful, or detestable to God and that is why He is absent from your circumstances.

If you could call anyone here on earth a saint, the closest thing to it would have been Mother Teresa, yet she experienced a period of 50 years where she felt God was nowhere to be found.

“[But] as for me–The silence and the emptiness is so great–that I look and do not see,–Listen and do not hear.”  – MOTHER TERESA TO THE REV. MICHAEL VAN DER PEET, SEPTEMBER 1979

“Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love–and now become as the most hated one–the one–You have thrown away as unwanted–unloved. I call, I cling, I want–and there is no One to answer–no One on Whom I can cling–no, No One.–Alone … Where is my Faith–even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness–My God–how painful is this unknown pain–I have no Faith–I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart–& make me suffer untold agony. So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them–because of the blasphemy–If there be God –please forgive me–When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven–there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul.–I am told God loves me–and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?” – MOTHER TERESA IN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO JESUS, UNDATED

If God has promised to always be with us, and His holy, righteous character seals Him to those promises. then it must be we have a part in the feelings of separation, abandonment, and silence.  Even Mother Teresa felt like this for decades!

I know in my own life, when God seemed nowhere close by, when it felt like He left me alone, my first reaction was to doubt – to wonder if He really existed. To visualize this, it was like letting go of His Hand – veering off in my own direction and coming to the false conclusion that I had to start facing things on my own.

I stopped reading my Bible (God’s way of communicating with me) because of my doubt.  I stopped praying because of the silence and lack of direction.  Like back in the days of Samuel, when God’s word was “precious and private” as Matthew Henry describes, I was the one responsible for shutting down those precious and private lines of communication.  I decided it wasn’t worth listening anymore.

We walk away by doubting, questioning, insisting on answers, and when God doesn’t respond to our pain in a way we think He should.

Like Mother Teresa, we need to keep holding God’s Hand – never letting go.  Even if our questions go unanswered, our desires unmet, and our lives remain in turmoil.  She decided to keep believing, to keep doing what she knew was the right thing to do, and to walk with God in the uncertainty, the silence, and the pain.

If you feel like God has left you, that He can no longer be found in your life, realize His presence is unchanging!  Start to contemplate how you have let go of His Hand and begin to reach out for it again – determined to keep believing, to keep moving forward, and to keep doing what is right and good within your circumstances.

Be determined to journey through this life holding on to Him – regardless of the pain, whether or not you understand what is happening in your life, or even if you can’t feel Him close – especially when your circumstances go unchanged.

Keep praying even when no answers are coming. Keep believing in Him when there seems to be nothing to believe in anymore. Keep reading His precious Word – giving Him the opportunity to speak to your heart in private.

Be determined to not let go, even when He can’t be found, even if it takes decades.  Believe He knows best, even when the worst is happening.  Believe He loves you, especially when you feel alone and abandoned.  Do what is right, even when you are being treated wrong.

I am confident if you do, like Mother Teresa, your life will be a living testimony – affecting the lives of your loved ones and the people you are close to.  Your faith will make a difference and your relationship with God will grow into something very special.

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

God bless you my friend!