What do you do when it seems like your prayers are not being answered, when it feels like God’s on vacation? When you’re doing your very best, but you don’t seem to be getting any breaks? God uses the seasons of silence to prepare us. We’re not being overlooked. When you see a coworker get promoted or a friend getting married, and you’re merely being tolerated and not being celebrated, know this: God uses this season in our life, and wants us to come to realize that the opportunities of a lifetime have to be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity, and preparation has to meet opportunity.
I’m calling you to embrace the quiet, when your dreams are ignored and silence is your only companion. Come to the quiet. Many times, God uses the quiet times to prepare us. Nothing may seem like it’s changing on the outside, but great things are happening on the inside. You’re learning to make God your source and put all your faith in God—not in people. Your character is being developed. In those times of silence and quiet, where you feel rejected, trust Him. You can celebrate in your suffering in silence and count it all joy because the Lord is going to use this for his glory.
Because no one seems to be celebrating you doesn’t mean that God has forgotten you. It’s just the opposite. Nothing can stop God’s purpose in your life. You’ve seen it in the life of Daniel in the Bible. He was led into captivity in Babylon, but it was Daniel who was used mightily to bring deliverance to the house of Israel. In Babylon you saw it in the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refused to bow or compromise. What you compromise to gain, you always lose. But in the midst of that fiery furnace there was a fourth man who delivered them.
The same can be said in the life of King David. As a boy, David was rejected by his own father. When Samuel came, his father didn’t even bring David up to meet the prophet. When Samuel finally anointed David to be king, he was sent back into the fields to tend the sheep. His brothers were in the military, and they mocked him, but nothing could stop God’s plan for David’s life—not even the quiet he was in.
I know I’ve been there. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, then was falsely accused and put in prison. But all of that was going to be used to fulfill God’s purpose in Joseph’s life. Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in the Bible. God said to him in 1 Kings 17:3: “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.” I can imagine him saying to God, “You want me to go hide myself? After all I’ve just done for you?” But for the next three and a half years, he only spoke to a widow and her son. He was faithful when he experienced silence in the wilderness. Then the fire of God fell from heaven and the rain came and the people repented. Embrace the quiet times.