When Heaven Seems Silent

“O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.”

Psalm 22:2

You've prayed for the same thing so many times you've lost count. Sometimes the prayer becomes almost automatic, because the answer keeps not coming and your faith starts to grow weary of waiting. You wonder if I'm even still listening.

This psalm you just read was written by a man of faith, in the middle of the most real anguish, convinced that heaven was silent. And yet that same psalm ends in praise, because in the middle of his crying out, he kept talking to me, even without feeling an immediate answer.

I'm not deaf to your request. Sometimes my answer is silence because the time hasn't come yet; sometimes it's a “no” that only makes sense later; sometimes I'm already acting in a way you haven't noticed yet. Keep crying out. Faith that endures in silence is stronger than faith that only shows up once everything is resolved.