When Urgent Cries Are Met with Silence

Do I still ask God to heal my husband? Yes, I do. Has his healing come yet? No it hasn’t. Does it make sense to me? Not yet.

Before you read today, you have the option of listening, just click the play arrow above. Thank you for choosing to spend time with me today, that means a lot.

This month, I’ve recruited you to join me on the battlefield of prayer. It is no easy work. It can be painful, grueling, and a wearisome task. But prayer is also intimate communion with the unseen God. Pause and consider the magnitude of that.

I want to encourage you to not lose heart as you battle in prayer. Your long obedience of prayer and the long wait for the unanswered miracle has purpose. Those prayers are not wasted. They are heard.

The cry of the brokenhearted reaches the ears of the Heart Knower. He searches for true worshipers and for those fiercely devoted to Him. He listens to those who look to Him for help. He is the champion for the defenseless and is ready to respond. But His response is not always the one I’m asking for.

Often what He chooses to do is much different than what I hoped He would do.

Sometimes, He chooses to let me wait a long time for His response.

Lake Superior Sunrise

Some of my most urgent cries, prayers with fasting, prayers lifted with much grief, agonizing prayers leaving wet pillows and drenched carpets, some of those prayers are still being lifted because they still need lifting. Faith has not yet become sight. But I won’t stop asking. Just as Simon Peter replied to Jesus:

“Lord, who else would we go to?”

God is the one to trust with our most urgent cries because He is God.

He alone can accomplish the heart work that I need, that my loved ones need, that our world needs. He alone can bring life from death. Only He can breathe on dry bones and resurrect them to life.

So, why does God seem to be silent when I’m begging Him, in anguish, to rescue my loved ones?

When I ask Him to heal my husband?

When I repeatedly lift the same cries?

I’m unable to untangle all the theological complexities of intercession, so please give me grace as I attempt to share my heart on this:

God desires for us to ask Him anything. Even when it seems that He doesn’t answer us, He is listening. He has a plan and it is good.

You’ve probably come up with your own answers for this dilemma before. Or someone has told you that God is silent because . . . God’s timing is not our timing . . . Just keep asking . . . You’re doubting and need more faith . . . There must be something wrong with how you’re asking, with your motive, or just plain something wrong with you. . .

Dear reader, if you’re asking big things of God, with a sincere heart, and your dependence is set on Him alone, then there’s nothing wrong with how you’re asking.

You might struggle with questions, have doubt-flares, and be puzzled by it all, but don’t let the enemy condemn you as you pray. He would want nothing more than to silence your requests—especially when God seems to have grown silent with you or if you think He may not even be listening.

The prophet Habakkuk had this same question.

“O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2)

I don’t claim to know why God is silent at times or why He answers some prayers super-fast while I’m still waiting for Him to come through on others. Or why He’s answered many of my specific prayers that I consider much less important than the ones I bring to Him repeatedly through the day. I’ve discussed this with Him a lot.

But this is what I do know:

God delights in us asking Him questions.

He wants us to seek Him. He invites us to come to Him with our needs, our thoughts, our dreams, our hopes, and our hearts. I believe our Savior finds joy in our conversations with Him. We know that Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the Father is seeking worshipers and, forgive me if I’m wrong on this, but I believe that every prayer lifted from a humble and sincere heart to our Heavenly Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, is a form of worship.

Worshipful prayer relays to God that, I need His help and I know He is the only one good and powerful enough to come through for me.

Remember how Jesus instructed His followers to ask, to seek, and even knock for an answer? Jesus said,

“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7—8)

That sounds like God doesn’t always provide the answer right away and prayers need to be repeated. Intently. Maybe with urgency. That’s why Jesus tells us that we need to resort to knocking on the door of His heart at times.

Is this how you’re praying, dear reader?

When I’m overwhelmed by the unknowns, confused or distressed by challenges I’m facing, and I start feeling anxious, I’ll voice this prayer:

Father, I don’t know . . . but I know that You know, and that’s all I need to know.

That prayer settles my heart every time.

I voice that prayer often and sometimes several times a day when it’s a really hard day.

That prayer doesn’t demand for God to clue me in on what He’s doing, but it lets Him know that I’m trusting Him whether I know what He’s doing or not.

Do I still ask God to heal my husband? Yes, I do. Has his healing come yet? No it hasn’t. Does that make sense to me? Not yet.

Do I still pray for loved ones that haven’t come to salvation yet? Yes, urgently and daily.

Does He have to let me know why these urgent cries haven’t been answered yet?

No, because I’ve read how He answered Job when he thought he deserved an explanation from God. Job’s suffering caused him to be suspicious of God’s goodness and he challenged God to explain why He was afflicting him.

I’ve read God’s answer. In fact, God patiently spent time asking Job more than seventy questions similar to this one:

“Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
He who argues with God, let him answer it.” (Job 40:2)

In Romans 9:20 we read something similar:

“Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God?”

I’m just human and the Lord has compassion on me and cares about my requests, but He doesn’t have to work on my time table or how I expect Him to. Although God didn’t answer Job’s questions or reveal what He was doing, by the conclusion of Job’s story, we witness God showing His goodness and love to Job.

But God never explained to Job why he was suffering.

Dear reader, like me, you may have a lot of questions about what God is doing. You may wonder why He hasn’t answered your most urgent requests yet and you may grow weary and discouraged. But, let me encourage you to keep asking. Our Lord sees your struggle.

He’s aware of every moment of suffering, He knows your greatest need, and He does care.

When God showed up to answer Job, even Job realized then that God had been aware all along of all Job was going through. God hadn’t turned His back on him. And be assured, the Lord won’t turn his back on you, dear one.

What are your most urgent requests from Him today? Can you share with us?

Grateful for you dear friends. All for His glory!