SEPTEMBER 29 "DOES GOD'S SILENCE DRIVE YOU CRAZY?"

  What has God's silence accomplished or not accomplished? We know He is the "invisible God" but He is also, very often, the "silent God".  In Isaiah we read today, "Is it because of my long silence that you no longer fear me?". God realizes everything He does and the ramifications of that. He understands what drives us crazy, He understands his silence and the pretense of being "aloof" might only encourage some further into their Lascivious & rebellious life style. The question is not how often does God speak, but rather, when He speaks, whether often or little, do we listen? And so now God is speaking, is anyone listening ? "You have been unfaithful, you have put pagan symbols on your doorposts and behind your doors." We want God to speak, but when He speaks we ignore him and then when He doesn't speak we accuse him of neglecting us, or we accuse him for our struggle of Faith, because we never hear from him. God cannot win, with people who do not have a right heart towards him. "Is it because of my long silence that you no longer fear me?"

It's a rhetorical question, as most questions that come from God. However, what kind of relationship is a relationship that is constantly run by fear and threats? This kind of relationship is to no advantage to anyone and it's a relationship based on a some very precarious grounds. Can God be silent and can He stop threatening and just see people serve based on what He has already spoken in the past and serve him based on their love for Him? God's silence will make the wicked more wicked, but God's silence will also cause people of faith to increase their faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. Carnal Christians need the constant voice and the constant threat of God, to be obedient. God's true Children serve him even when the Master is gone away from the house for a while. When the Master returns He finds the faithful about their Father's business and when the Master returns He also finds the unfaithful back at what He has threatened them over and over, what not to do. If you can't trust your children when you are away, then you are only deluded to think that you can trust them when you are not away. If God cant' trust us in silence, if God can't trust us in his absence (or at least seemingly absent) then He cannot trust us at all. If you're waiting for lightning to strike and barely miss you, so fear can get in you and straighten you up to serve God, I've got some news for you, it's probably not coming. If you're waiting for something bad to happen to you as some kind of sign of omen, that God is against you so you can know and repent, I got some bad news for you, it probably isn't coming. So what does God's silence accomplish? It weeds out the faithful from the unfaithful. It weeds out the genuine from the disingenuous. It brings out the carnality of the carnal and brings out the Faith of the Faithful. It forces a relationship to be forged out of love and obedience, not just fear. It releases people, gives the freedom to serve God or not and it creates a relationship where I am serving you now because I love you and want to; not just because I fear you and you will strike me with lightning or send me to hell if I don't. Yes, "fear of God is the beginning, of all wisdom" , but remember, "it's the beginning" in other words, we should at some point in our relationship progress on and move on to a place where now our relationship is not just based on fear but has moved towards a love and appreciation of this God that we have come to know and love. Now, we sin not, because we know it hurts God, whether perhaps in the beginning, we stopped sinning because of the fear of Hell. Joseph in the Old Testament, does not sin and commit adultery because he does not want to sin against God. I'm not sure what understanding Joseph had of the afterlife, about hell and judgement but we know by readying his story that he had an immense love for God.  God's silence in those days caused most of his brothers only to become more wicked, but it also caused Joseph to become more devout and so can God's silence do the same for us, God's silence will either make or break us!