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“When God is silent”
Number 22:1-6, James
4:2-3, John 15:1-8
November 13th, 2005
The Rev. Kong Namkung
One of my best friends joined the Korean Army in 1982. He was my classmate from the middle and high school. He and I were buddies, wherever I went he was there with me and wherever he went he asked me to be with him. He served in the Korean military in DMZ. After he served over two years and 6 months, before he got out of the Army, he stepped on an old bomb and was wounded badly. I was told that he was at the military hospital at the point of death. I could not do anything, but pray for him. I asked God to touch him and to heal him. Everyday I prayed for him with tears rolling down from my cheeks. However, two days later, God called him into His presence. God was silent in my prayers. I asked God, “Why do you take away my best friend from me? Why do you take his life when he was almost ready to get out of the Army? Why him? Why my best friend?” I cried many days and night for the loss of my best friend. But God was in silent. God was like a mute.
That led me to experience a total different God in my prayer life because in the Bible God’s people asked God to rain, God gave them rain. When they asked fire, God gave them fire. When they asked God to defeat their enemies, God defeated them. But why was God silent?
In our Christian journey we lift countless prayer requests and supplication to God. However, there are many moments that God is silent. God did not answer our prayers. We ask ourselves, “Did I do something wrong? Does God care what would happen in my life?” Today you and I will journey together to find out why God is silent and what do we do when God is silent in our prayers.
I. Reasons why God is silent
Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given you, search, and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened for you.”
James 4:2, “You do not have, because you do not ask.”
God is sovereign God and God is not a mute or deaf. But sometimes, God waits for us to ask so that we know our God wider, better, and deeper, that God accomplishes God’s goal, which is to have an intimate relationship with us.
Mark 11:25, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that you father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”
Eph 4:32, “Forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Do you know that forgiveness like love is one of God’s gifts? If you receive that gift, you want to share it with others. God will know that you have received the gift of forgiveness, when you share it with others. If you do not share it with others, then, you have not received it yet.
Isaiah 59:1-2, “See, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear, rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you.”
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, has some good insights about the times in our life when God is silent. He said,
“1. God may seem silent during times of unseen spiritual warfare.”
“2. God may be forcing us to grow when God seems silent.“
“3. God may seem silent when we have unconfesed sin in our live.”
Since we are living in a very fast move society, we move one prayer request to another. We ask God and wait for one day or even for an hour and we move to another prayer request. Our prayer request to God is like play station game. If you mess up the game, you push the bottom of start again. I think our prayer life is like baking a loaf of bread. It takes time to get an answer from God unless it is an emergency.
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:2-3)
God is not like your room service man in a hotel, but God is like a roman man, who wants to have a romantic relationship with us.
Today’s Old Testament lesson talks about God’s answer to Balaam’s prayer request. Balak asked Balaam to curse the Israelites by giving silver and gold. But Balaam asked god and God said, “No to curse the Israelites.” So he asked God over and over again. So God told him to go with Balak on the way to Moab, God hindered him by opening the eyes of the donkey. Finally, he saw the angle of the Lord and could not curse the Israelites. My point is that Balaam wanted to have silver and gold for his own pleasure that is why he had a hard time with God.
II. What do we do when God is in silence?
Psalm 34:15, “The lord watches over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help.”
The apostle Paul pleaded God 3 times for the thorn in his flesh. (2 Cor 12:7-8, “Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a message of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded to the Lord about this, that it would leave me.”
The word “pleaded” is used in Mark 5:23-24, when Jairus asked for the healing of his daughter who was dying; Mark 1:40 -45 when a leper sough cleansing from his leprosy; and Matthew 18:29 when a servant begged his master for mercy over the debt that he owed so that he would not be thrown into prison and separated from his family.
Jeremiah 51:15, “It is who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom.”
Saint Augustine, in his book, Confession, shared when he was not a Christian and his mother, Monica, prayed for him to be saved enormous days and nights. One day he decided to go to Italy. Monica was afraid if he left her influence would never give his life to Christ. So Monica prayed day and night. But God did not answer her request, Augustine left for Italy. While he was in Italy, Augustine met Ambrose, who led him to Christ. It is God’s power that helped Augustine to meet Ambrose.
John 1:14, “The Word became human, and lived here on earth among us.” That means in Jesus are the answers. And where is Jesus revealed today? He is in the Word. The Bible contains the answer to every field of our lives. It is the fix all to life’s problems. When you lift up your prayers, you feel that God is silent, and then open the Bible and you will discover the answer. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he spoken to us by the Son.” God’s Son is the Word (John 1:1) Therefore God speaks to us through His word.
2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
In conclusion, when Joel was little boy, he liked to eat chocolate. One day he was very sick and he could not eat anything. My wife asked him, “What would you like to have for lunch?” He said, “Chocolate!” The answer was NO. My wife did not explain why he could not have chocolate in detail rather than having some soup or other soft meal when he was sick. Likewise, God does not explain all things that happened in our lives. God is silent. The truth of the matter is that God is still God like some men do not want to show their weakness in front of others so they do not want to go to see doctor even though they are sick. The point is reality and truth cannot hide. Even though God is silent in our prayers, the reality of God is God. And God is GOOD ALL THE TIME.
Thomas Edison was asked how he felt to fail 2,000 times before successfully inventing the light bulb. He said, “I never failed once, it just happened to be a 2,000 step process.”
My beloved, brothers and sisters, when we pray to God, we never fail to be faithful to God and His word. God never fail us when we pray. And God never fail his faithfulness and goodness. God is our Lord and God is good all the time. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Numbers
22:1-6
22:1 Then the Israelites traveled to the plains of Moab and camped along
the Jordan across from Jericho.
2 Now Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, 3
and Moab was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab was
filled with dread because of the Israelites.
4 The Moabites said to the elders of Midian, "This horde is going to lick
up everything around us, as an ox licks up the grass of the field."
So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, 5 sent
messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the
River, in his native land. Balak said:
"A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have
settled next to me. 6 Now come and put a curse on these people, because
they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them
and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are
blessed, and those you curse are cursed." NIV
James 4:2-3
2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have
what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask
God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives,
that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. NIV
John 15:1-8
15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every
branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of
the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No
branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you
bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he
will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not
remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches
are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my
words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is
to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my
disciples. NIV
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