‘I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer.’ Job 30:20 NCV Do you ever feel like God isn’t answering you? Job felt the same way when he said, ‘I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you just look at me…when I hoped for good, only evil came to me; when I looked for light, darkness came’ (vv. 20 & 26 NCV). We all go through times when it feels like God’s slipped away from us. What’s He up to? Why doesn’t He respond? The answer is that there are some lessons we can only learn when He’s silent: 1) Silence doesn’t mean absence. Sometimes God says to us, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10 NIV). You have to feel really secure with somebody to just sit quietly with them. Silence makes us take the emphasis off words and build a level of intimacy where they’re not necessary. When we’re upset, grieving or overwhelmed, the person who comforts us the most is often the one who sits silently with us and shares our pain. So if we want to be comfortable with God, we need to learn to sit in silence with Him. 2) Silence tests your faith. Remember when you were little and learning to ride a bike? Your mum or dad ran alongside you, holding onto the bike and keeping it straight and steady while you learned to control it. Then when you felt a bit more confident, they tested you by letting go for a few metres to see how much you’d learned. Sometimes God takes a step back to see how far we’ve progressed in our faith. It doesn’t mean He isn’t there - He’s actually right there, ready to catch us if we fall - it just means He’s asking us to trust Him in the silence.