Devotion: The Silence of God

Job 19:7, “I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me. I protest, but there is no justice.” NLT

Job 23:3, “If only I knew where to find him so that I could go to his throne!” CSB

Often the most difficult part of grief is the silence of God. We cry and we petition God, only to be met with silence. That silence is devastating when we are used to walking and talking with God. It really is as Job states, “If only I knew where to find him…” It is as if we have lost God.

We struggle with this because in our deepest, darkest moments we feel that God has temporarily abandoned us. We know Scripture tells us differently, but when a person is grieving a loss, feelings are prominent in our experience. Like Job, we would love to find God and deliver our case against HIm for allowing our loss and being silent when we need HIm the most.

It’s a difficult thing to accept, you know….. We are taught of God’s omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, yet we cannot understand how God allows certain things to happen. In dealing with our grief, it is normal to have a lot of questions, and often these questions are met with silence. The only thing left is trust! We must trust the character of God – His love, His goodness, His holiness, His righteousness, and much, much more. You can trust Him, though He may be silent. You can trust Him, though it may seem He cannot be found.

When we look at the life of Job, we see a man whose life was in shambles, who passionately pleaded for God to speak from the silence. Yet, Job proved that though he had lost everything meaningful in his life, he still trusted the Lord. It’s a scary thing, but in the story of Job, we do see faith utterly standing alone. May we have a stand-alone faith that trusts in the Lord through the silence of our grief.