Weekly Challenge
Grab a note pad and write down throughout the week as many reasons as you can to explain the reasons why God would choose not to answer our prayers. Discuss with as many believers as you can throughout the week.
Read Malachi 4:1 - Matthew 1:17
Do you realise the momentous thing you have just done? Do you realise the significance of what has just happened? You’ve just read over 400 years of history and here’s the totally amazing and mind boggling bit - for most of that 400 years God was absolutely silent. There was no prophecy no Word from the Lord. There was no cry in the temple, ‘Thus says the Lord…’ There was no messenger sent from God. There were no visions and no angelic visits.
Often God is silent in our own world. We really don’t cope well. We live in a world that decries being still in God’s presence. We walk in a world that deplores inactivity and unproductiveness. We inhabit a world that demands answers and when God is loudly silent we crumble into despair. In desperation we cry out to God. We speculate upon the reasons for God’s silence. We comfort ourselves and often lie to ourselves. We look for God in every nook and cranny. We turn to substitutes, making them our temporary gods, be they drugs, alcohol, self pleasure or whatever. Yet through it all we feel hopeless because we are deafened by God’s silence.
It was during those 400 years of silence that many things happened. The synagogue service developed. The Pharisees and Sadducees developed. Rome became the dominating world power and gained control over the Bible lands. The stage was set for the fulfilment of all God’s plans. Everything was ready for Messiah to enter onto centre stage and bring all God’s promises and plans to fruition and fulfilment.
In times of God’s silence I don’t need to panic or seek to do it my way. I don’t need to take up plan B or C or D or E. I don’t need to run to another temporary god. I don’t need to fall into a heap. I need to trust God. I need to walk by faith. I need to be at peace in His presence. God has promised that ‘all things work for the good of those who love Him’ (Romans 8:28) and this certainly includes his times of silence. Trust God… Don’t force it. As Corrie Ten Boom would often say, ‘Nestle, don’t wrestle.’ Nestle into God’s love and grace. Don’t wrestle with Him.
Sometimes we are on a need to know basis and, put bluntly, in times of God’s silence we don’t need to know. We need to trust. We need to nestle into God’s loving arms. We need to stop wrestling with God. God hasn’t lost control. God hasn’t forgotten you. God hasn’t missed the moment. God is powerfully at work, albeit behind the scenes. God is doing something grand.
Prayer:
Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
¥ A small team is headed off to Myanmar very soon. Pray that God would use them powerfully to teach the students and to bring great blessing to them. Pray that the team would be unified and that they would work well together as they teach and preach. Pray that the students would be greatly blessed by the team’s presence in Myanmar.
¥ Pray that Christians all around the world would be ready and willing to make the most of the Christmas season in terms of reaching out and evangelising friends and family. Pray that we would see many conversions to Christ throughout the festive season. Pray specifically for 5 non-Christians in your life that you would love to see come to Christ in repentance and faith.
My Additional Prayer Points.
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