O my soul,

What will you do when God does not act?

Notice that I say when and not if. I say when because he has already not acted, hasn’t he? O my soul, you are so very familiar with the silence of the unanswered prayer and the emptiness of the Lord’s inaction. I know you are.

So what of this?

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.

― Psalm 37:5

But is your way not already fully committed? You know that it is! Do you not already trust him utterly and completely? You know that you do!

Did he then act? No he did not.

And what of these words of Jesus?

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

― Matthew 7:7-11

Have you not asked? Yes of course you have, and many times. Has it then been given to you? No it has not. Have you received? No you have not.

And what of Jesus’ summing up of his parable of the persistent widow?

And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.”

― Luke 18:6-8a

Did you cry out to God day and night? Yes you did. And did you then receive this justice? And speedily? No you did not.

Or these words that Jesus spoke to his disciples in the upper room?

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

― John 14:12-14

Did you not already ask in his name, understanding full well the requirement to put aside self-interest and pray the Lord’s own heart? Yes, you did, in faith and humility and complete confidence in him. And did he do it? No he did not.

And what about what he said after cursing that fig tree?

When the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

― Matthew 21:20-22

O my soul, do you have faith? I know you do. And having cast yourself upon the Lord so completely, having trusted him with your very life, having believed and not doubted, having grown into possessing a faith that could so nearly move that mountain, where does that leave you in relation to these firm assurances? These trustworthy promises? From the one whose name is Faithful and True?

For isn’t the stark reality that the Lord has not in fact acted?

So what now?

Will you give up hoping? Will you give up trusting? Will you give up waiting? Will you give up believing?

Or will you continue in your walk of faith and hope and trust in the Lord? Which you choose is a matter of life and death. O my soul, make no mistake here. Your very life depends upon it!

So you must cry out with Job,

Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.

― Job 13:15

You must hope in him, for there is no other. But argue your ways to his face. You must do this. He can take it. Are the psalms not full of it?

And in the silence and the emptiness and the bewilderment and the heartbreak perhaps you have two questions for the Lord. Cry out to God with these two questions: Why? And how long?

Let’s start with why.

But know that the question of why is confronted head on by the Lord’s rebuke of Job. A rebuke that came after a prolonged period of suffering. A prolonged period of waiting. A prolonged period of dismay and bewilderment. The rebuke came throughout Job chapters 38-42 and could be summarised like this: “I am the LORD Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth. And who are you exactly?”

O my soul, do not think that you are owed any explanation for you are not. You are a grasshopper before the Lord of Hosts. Surrender that spirit of entitlement that demands you understand why. For you do not and you cannot know these things.

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

― Deuteronomy 29:29

The secret things belong to the Lord our God.

Nevertheless even though he was denied his explanation of why, Job was commended for pleading his case before the Lord.

After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

― Job 42:7

So you must continue to argue your ways to the Lord, to his face. You must!

And notwithstanding the absence of any real explanation we may know that a profound work is taking place. Is this not precisely what is revealed?

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith⸺more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire⸺may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

― 1 Peter 1:6-7

The time of silence and emptiness is a trial like no other. You must pass this test. Your faith is more precious than gold. Nurture that faith!

And recall how Jesus ended his summing up of his parable of the persistent widow.

Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

― Luke 18:8b

O my soul, will he find faith in your own heart, faith more precious than gold? If he does know that there will be praise and honour and glory.

The second question was Habakkuk’s own heart-cry.

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?

― Habakkuk 1:2

How long, O Lord? We have asked this before. And as before we may rejoice in the answer spoken to Habakkuk by the Lord, the everlasting God, the Holy One.

Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.

― Habakkuk 1:5

Be assured that the Lord is indeed doing a great work, a wondrous work, a mighty work which cannot be told. It is a work of faithfulness and power. It is a good and kind work. It is a healing work. It is a work of deliverance and the fulfillment of promises. It is such a work that you would not believe if told!

So what will you do? You must do as Abraham was commanded, after his own waiting time of twenty-four years. Twenty-four years of waiting on the Lord for the fulfilment of that impossible promise. Twenty-four years of bewilderment. A time during which he had wrestled and struggled and stumbled badly. Perhaps you too have stumbled. But nevertheless,

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.”

― Genesis 17:1

O my soul, you must walk before the Lord and be blameless. The integrity with which you live your life is of the utmost importance. In this bewildering time of waiting, your own personal holiness will be life and health and strength both for you and for others. To walk before the Lord means to live in his presence, in the context of his goodness and kindness and faithfulness and all that he has promised.

O my soul, hold on to hope and trust in the Lord, walk before him and be blameless! 🙏