When Heaven Is Silent

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?", Psalm 22:1

These are the words of Jesus on the cross. He quoted a psalm. He knew the theology. And He still cried it out, because the silence was real, and the cry was honest. There is no shame in crying "My God, my God, why?" The God who designed the universe is large enough to hold your unanswered question.

Insight Psalm 22 begins in desolation and ends in declaration. Between the opening cry and the closing confidence, the psalmist does something extraordinary, he rehearses God's faithfulness to the ancestors: "Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them." When God is silent, the practice of remembrance sustains faith. What He has done becomes the ground for trusting what He will do.

The silence of God is not always the absence of God. Lazarus died while Jesus stayed where He was, on purpose, for a greater purpose. Mary and Martha said, "If you had been here, he would not have died." They were right about the power. They were wrong about the absence. He had been with them the whole time.

Insight Faith is not the absence of doubt. It is the refusal to let doubt have the final word. The honest cry of "I don't understand" is fully compatible with the stubborn commitment of "but I trust You anyway." Both can be true at the same time. God does not punish the honest prayer.

The silence will end. Psalm 22 ends in praise. Your chapter of silence is not the final chapter. Hold the thread. The morning is coming.

Prayer Lord, in the silence I choose to trust. When I cannot feel You and cannot hear You and cannot trace Your hand, I will remember what You have done. I will hold fast to what You have said. I refuse to let the silence become the verdict. You are still God. Amen.