Why does God seem silent?

God has spoken - in His Word and in His Son - and He is not far from you. That does not explain why a particular prayer of yours seems to have gone unanswered, and this page will not pretend it does. What the Bible gives instead is this: a record of people who felt exactly what you feel, a description of the One you are praying to, and an invitation to keep coming.

You are not the first to ask. David, who wrote more about God than almost anyone, asked it in these words:

How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?

O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!

People who trusted God deeply have stood where you are standing. The Bible kept their words so that you would know it.

God has spoken

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son

The Bible in your hands is God speaking. His Son walking on the earth was God speaking. Whatever else is true about your prayer, this is true: God is not a God who has said nothing. He has said a great deal, and most of it is about Himself and about you. That does not answer why the thing you asked for has not come. But it means the silence you feel is not the silence of an empty room.

The One you are praying to

Before anything is said about what might be in the way, hear who is on the other side of the prayer:

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

He is touched with the feeling of your weakness. He was tempted in every point as you are. And the invitation is not “come when you have sorted yourself out.” It is come boldly - to obtain mercy, and to find help in time of need. Whatever you bring to the next section, bring it to Him.

Ask honestly whether something is in the way

No one can tell you why God seems silent in your life - Job’s friends tried that with Job, and God rebuked them for it. But the Bible does say that known, held-onto sin affects prayer, and it says it plainly enough that honesty requires putting it on the page:

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Notice two things. The problem is never God’s ear. And the psalmist who wrote the warning ends it with thanksgiving - God had heard him. So the honest question is: is there something I know to be sin, that I am defending or hiding? If there is, the Bible’s counsel is confession, and its promise is what David found:

I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Thou forgavest. That is the assurance. But be careful with what this does and does not mean. If you have searched your heart honestly and confessed what you know, and God still seems far - that is not evidence that you are hiding something. Many of God’s people have felt distant from Him with a clear conscience; David did, in the psalm at the top of this page. Do not let a true warning become a false accusation against yourself.

Sometimes He is making you wait - and the waiting is not absence

The Bible says that waiting for God is not wasted, and that His delay has a purpose:

The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

He waits so that He may be gracious. And He is not far from the person who is hurting:

The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Sometimes the answer is help, not removal

There is one more possibility, and the Bible gives a plain example of it. Paul had something he called a thorn in the flesh, and he asked three times for it to be taken away. This is what he received:

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

The thorn stayed. The answer came anyway - not the relief he asked for, but grace to bear it, and Christ’s strength in the middle of the weakness. Some prayers are answered that way. It is not the same as silence, though it can feel like it at first.

Draw near

But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

That is a promise, and it is made to the humble - to the person who comes for mercy rather than on his own terms. It is not a technique that produces a feeling on demand. It is God’s word that the one who comes to Him will not be left standing outside. And how does God’s word reach a person who does not yet know Him? Not by a private message. By hearing what He has already said:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me

Read what He has said. That is where His voice is, for anyone, and it is where those who become His learn to know it.

He knows what it is like

On the cross, Jesus prayed a question you may have prayed:

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

He asked why. The One you are praying to has prayed that prayer. And to everyone who belongs to Him, He has given this word - a promise of His faithfulness, whether or not His presence is felt in the moment:

I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

You do not have to pretend

Psalm 13 begins with “How long wilt thou forget me?” It ends like this:

But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

The psalm does not say what happened to David’s trouble. It records a man moving from lament to trust in the same prayer. You do not have to pretend that God feels close in order to keep seeking Him. Bring Him your frustration and your uncertainty honestly. The Bible gives you words to pray when He seems far away - and it gives you His own words to read, which is where He has been speaking all along.

If you would rather talk to a person than read another page, you can write to us here.