A Prayer to Wait in Hope When God Seems Silent - Your Daily Prayer - April 4

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A Prayer to Wait in Hope When God Seems Silent
By: Whitney Hopler

Bible Reading:
“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” – Psalm 27:14, NIV 

Listen or Read Below:

Do you sometimes feel like God isn’t hearing your prayers, or that if God is listening, he doesn’t care enough to answer your prayers? There are times in this fallen world when you may pray and not hear anything back from God for a while. You may even start to wonder if prayer really works. 

If God seems silent in your life right now, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in the company of Jesus’ disciples on Holy Saturday. The day after the crucifixion and the day before the resurrection was the ultimate day of waiting. The disciples knew the wonderful truth of what Jesus had promised would happen, but the time for it hadn’t yet come. God must have seemed silent to the disciples on that Saturday. They had to hold onto their faith that, at the right time, they would hear from God again when the resurrection happened. 

You’ll sometimes face your own “Holy Saturdays” – those times when you’ve asked God to help you with something, but you haven’t yet seen God’s help arrive. You may be praying about a broken relationship, but are still estranged from someone you love. You may be praying for a job you want, but the door to that opportunity is still closed. You may be asking God to heal you from an illness or injury, but your health hasn’t improved. There are many other situations you can be facing where you’re praying, but God doesn’t seem to be answering. When you’re in the middle of a Holy Saturday situation, don’t worry. Even if God isn’t currently speaking to you, he’s still working for you, because God is always at work in your life. 

Psalm 27:14 encourages you to wait for God to reveal his answers to your prayers. It doesn’t just tell you to wait; it tells you how to wait when it says to “be strong and take heart.” That kind of waiting isn’t passive. It’s an active process of waiting with hope. As you wait, God will give you strength. When you wait with hope, you’re cooperating with God as he prepares you for what’s next in your life. 

The silence of Holy Saturday came right before the greatest miracle the world would ever know! While the disciples were grieving Jesus’ death on the cross, Jesus was in the process of overcoming death forever. The silence would soon turn into a loud celebration, once the timing was right for the resurrection. 

So, if you’re having a Holy Saturday experience right now where God seems silent, let Psalm 27:14 encourage you to wait with hope. Silence is the space God uses to prepare you for the wonderful ways he plans to answer your prayers in his timing, which is always best. Be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord. Use this time to seek fresh encouragement and strength from God. Keep believing that God is planning something wonderful to answer your prayers. Look forward to seeing it happen when the timing is right for God to send it to you.

You can trust God, who kept his promise on that first Easter morning, to answer every single one of your prayers in the very best timing. 

Let’s Pray: 

Dear God, I’m not hearing from you, even though I’ve prayed a lot and really hope for an answer soon. I've gotten tired and frustrated from praying so much and still not hearing an answer from you. But as discouraged as I feel, I know that your perspective is greater than mine, and you have a perfect time in mind for answering my prayers.

On this Holy Saturday, I’m thinking about how your disciples once felt the painful frustration of seeing your sealed grave and wondering whether or not you really would be resurrected. But they were just one day away from experiencing the miracle of your resurrection. Please forgive me for the times I’ve mistaken your silence for your absence.

Help me remember that even when I can’t see you moving, you’re still working behind the scenes doing something wonderful. So, I choose to take heart and wait with hope for your timing to arrive. Strengthen my faith while I wait. I look forward to how you will answer my prayers. Thank you that this silence is only temporary, and I’ll be able to celebrate your answer in the future. I love you, God. Amen.

Join the conversation! Share how today’s devotional spoke to you on the Crosswalk Forum.

Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Arthit_Longwilai 

Whitney Hopler helps people discover God's wonder and experience awe. She is the author of several books, including the nonfiction books Wake Up to Wonder and Wonder Through the Year: A Daily Devotional for Every Year, and the young adult novel Dream Factory. Whitney has served as an editor at leading media organizations, including Crosswalk.com, The Salvation Army USA’s national publications, and Dotdash.com (where she produced a popular channel on angels and miracles). She currently leads the communications work at George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. Connect with Whitney on her website at www.whitneyhopler.com and on her Facebook author page.

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