When Heaven Seems Silent

(Matthew 6:5-8 NLT) “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!”

 Be real.

 Be relaxed.

 Be revealing.

When Heaven Seems Silent

(Job 30:20 GN) “I call to you, O God, but you never answer; when I pray, you pay no attention.”

(Jeremiah 33:3) “Call me to me and I will answer you…”

1. God doesn’t have blind spots.

(Hebrews 4:13 TLB) “He knows about everyone, everywhere. Everything about us is bare and wide open to the all-seeing eyes of our living God; nothing can be hidden from him...”

(Proverbs 2:8) “For he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.”

2. God does have a better idea.

(Isaiah 55:8-9 TLB) “This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours.”

(Hebrews 11:39-40) “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better...”

3. God always has an unseen purpose.

(Isaiah 46:10) “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18) “Therefore we do not lose heart...For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

4. Everything that God does is motivated by love.

(Psalm 25:10) “All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful…”

(Romans 8:28) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

5. God always gives us grace.

(2 Corinthians 12:7-9) “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”

(Psalm 9:10) “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”