I Don’t Hear Anything
Notes
Transcript
Elijah had an incredible mountain top experience. The boldness of his challenge, and God answered! Woo Hoo!
I think after that I could walk on water! I’d be ready to take on the world. Let’s look at Elijah’s reaction.
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”
Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
So let’s just back up and think about this. He challenged 450 prophets to a competition on who’s God was real, and won. God not only showed up, but showed up in impressive fashion burning up not just the sacrifice that had been doused with 4 jars of water 3 times - 12 jars of water so there is no possibility of spontaneous combustion. In fact had they brought a flame to the wood, it is doubtful it would light.
Elijah calls on the Lord and fire fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. God totally showed up.
And then…Elijah is afraid?
Its probably more true that I relate to Elijah’s fear than his victory.
For the past several weeks we’ve been in this series I’ve called the school of prayer. We began just recognizing that God loves us deeply and pursues us - we’re not distant from God. Since then we’ve examined what we often refer to as the Lord’s Prayer, we’ve discussed that prayer is more than merely asking and that it calls us to act. Then we talked about what it means to live in Christ and the security of that in our prayers. Last week we began to talk about listening in prayer. We hear in a variety of ways.
Today we come to one of the hardest prayers.
I Don’t Hear Anything!
I Don’t Hear Anything!
I would contend it is the hardest prayer - the unanswered prayer.
We pray for that loved one, about the diagnosis, world condition, you name it and when we listen for God’s answer…
We don’t hear anything. We stare at the ceiling or the sky wondering, does God even hears us? Has God abandoned us? Why don’t we hear anything?
C.S. Lewis noted,
“Every war, every famine or plague, almost every death-bed, is a monument to a petition that was not granted.”
What can make it feel worse is when we’re talking to others and they talk about how they’ve heard from God in answer to their prayers. We feel like failures. Why does God answer their prayers and not ours?
The truth is most people don’t talk about their prayers that aren’t answered. It’s sort of like social media - you see everybody’s high lights - but you miss out on the low lights.
That’s why I personally love the Scriptures, because you get the highs and the lows of these people’s experience, like Elijah. And that’s my experience. In my faith journey I’ve had some pretty incredible experiences. I’ve also had moments of despair wondering in that moment if I even mattered to God. The biblical characters we read about are no different. Just looking at the book of Psalms and the psalmists words:
My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
How long, O Lord, will you look on?
O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?
How long must your servant endure?
I’m going to make a bold statement and say that there is not one person here who cannot relate to these statements from the psalmists. We pray, we petition the Lord, we listen and…
…and…nothing.
Last week we were focused on listening to God, so this week I have no doubt the title of today’s message rings true for many of you as it does for me:
I Don’t Hear Anything
I Don’t Hear Anything
There are times, perhaps often, when we pray it feels like we’re talking to the ceiling. We lay out our burdens before God, we may even pray using words from Scripture. And still…
Silence.
How long….?
How long….?
Isn’t that our plea when our prayers go unanswered? When will it be answered? How come it’s taking so long?
There are those who will say, God answers prayers in three ways, “Yes.” “No.” and “Wait.” Yet as we learned in our study of Job, God’s ways are not our ways. You really think you understand the intricacies of God’s plan? The psalmist cries:
Psalm 13:1–2 “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”
For decades a father has been estranged from one of his children. We’ve been praying together for reconciliation and are just now seeing glimpses of that give us hope this side of glory.
A woman is laid off from her job and for months continues to seek a position to support her children as the bills pile up. How long…?
Does God not hear?
Does God not care?
Is God impotent?
These are the questions that haunt us and can bring us to a crisis of faith. In our crying out we get loud. Perhaps louder than the voice one should be listening for.
If we return to the story of Elijah after running from Jezebel he finds himself discouraged to the point that he asks that he might die, and even prays and asks the Lord that it might be so. He ends up in a cave on a mountain. And God commands him to go out and stand on the mount, and the Lord passes by,
And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
God was there. But it took a while for Elijah to hear.
Sometimes it takes a while for us to hear.
It’s difficult when we have promises throughout the Scriptures of God answering our prayers and then we run into a time in our faith journey when we cease to see them answered. What’s happening? Is God not answering?
Returning to Psalm 13 for a moment:
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Throughout the Psalm we read, “How long” 4 times within the first two verses! And then in closing we read this.
I have trusted - past tense
My heart shall rejoice - future
I will sing - future
Because he has dealt bountifully - past.
Sometimes the answer to our prayers is simply faith. Faith that the God who was (in the past), is the God who is (in the present) and the God who will be (in the future).
Sometimes we need to recognize if God answered everyone’s prayers the way they ask them, that God would be answering and cancelling answers all the time. Two teams play a basketball game against one another and both pray to win.
Sometimes our prayers are self centered and not honoring to God.
Sometimes God has answered and yet in our narrow sightedness we are unable to see what God has done until later. Sometimes that means years later.
Sometimes God there are issues in our own lives that we need to work out with God before God can or will answer our prayer.
Again from C.S. Lewis:
“If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where should I be now?”
From my perspective, when I hear nothing is the time that I must continue to pursue.
I read the Bible and I hear promises that God will answer prayer: Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
and so many other passages as well. I read the biographies of great Christian leaders and how God answered their prayers and think, I want to be like that. And so, when I’m kneeling or sitting with my head bowed lifting up my concerns of others and of my own I have to cling in faith to the promises that are there. It is an act of faith.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
If God is silent, I will sit in the silence waiting. I believe it was Henri Nouwen who encouraged his readers to “Live in the question.”
So what’s the answer? The answer is faith. The answer is to continue to lean into God. The answer is to trust in God’s promises.
Just because you don’t hear, see, or feel anything doesn’t mean God isn’t working.
I cling to the assuredness Paul wrote to the church in Philippi from Prison:
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
God’s still working.
So journal, write out your prayer requests. Write letters to God. A pastor of mine once challenged us to write our own psalms. God hears. God answers. ASK - pray. SEEK - keep watch to see how God is answering your prayers, what opportunities, etc. are before you. KNOCK - be active.
And all of it is to the glory of God.
