Originally published Wednesday, 26 January 2022.
When You Can’t Hear God’s Voice
By: Jennifer Maggio
It was dark. The silence of God’s voice was frightening. Deafening. Nothingness. I could hear nothing. It was my eighth consecutive night of virtually no sleep. I was surrounded by only my thoughts. They consumed me. There was fear and longing and worry and hardship. I had cried so much that there were no tears left. There was grief in my heart, but the tears wouldn't flow. I was too tired - tired of life, tired of aloneness, tired of trying. God, where are you? Do you hear me? Do you even care?
This moment didn’t happen years ago, when I wasn't saved, didn't pray regularly, or avoided reading my Bible. It happened in the middle of my praying and reading and attending church and worshipping and praising. Truth is, I've had many nights like that one. There have been days when my prayers seemed to go unanswered, weeks and months where God's voice was unheard, and His prompting uncertain. My Christian journey has been filled with highs and lows, and I'm certain yours has, too. There have been times of unspeakable joy where God's hand was so evident upon my life that no one could deny it. And there have been other times when I was desperate to hear God's direction for my life, and I simply couldn't hear his voice.
My testimony of God's goodness is a powerful one. He rescued me from myself. He rescued me from every poor decision I had made. I was once a homeless, severely abused, single mom who was pregnant four times outside of marriage. I lived in poverty, clung to everything empty, and ran from God for years. It's not hard to track where God was at work in my life.
Raising children is hard. Being a wife is hard. Being in ministry is hard. Balancing budgets is hard. Losing weight is hard. Life is hard. It's that simple. Jesus told us that in John 16:33 that we would have trouble in this world. As Christians, we've all had those amazing moments with the Lord, where the Holy Spirit nudged our hearts in a dramatic way. We've felt the joy of knowing where we will spend eternity. Most of us have been on fire for God, where we just wanted others to know about what He has done in our lives. But we've also gone through the dry seasons, the spiritual wilderness where we hear nothing from God.
May I be honest? There are times when fear consumes me. Times when the worries of raising children and where they’ll go to college, if they’ll make good decisions, or what their grades may be consumes me. There are times when frankly, I've cried out to God when I didn't feel Him near and couldn't hear his voice. But that didn’t make him any less near!
Too often in our Christian walk, we navigate our faith based on how we feel. When God's moving in an obvious way, it's easy for us to praise Him. It's easy to remain faithful when we are full of happiness and joy when the new job came through, or miraculous healing takes place. But if you've been a Christian for more than about 60 seconds, you realize, life's journey brings ups and downs, struggles, and joys. Our salvation was and never will be based on how we feel. Our journey must be a commitment to stay the course, even when we can't hear or see and even when we don't understand.
"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9
I once heard a pastor say it like this, "Our feelings are a great servant, but a terrible master." Our feelings help us gauge where we are or how we are dealing with a circumstance, but they aren't our litmus test of salvation. When we don't feel God's presence, it doesn't mean He isn't near. When we don't see active movement from Him in our lives, it doesn't mean He isn't working. When we don't feel like serving Him, it doesn't mean we don't.
Thank God our salvation is far deeper than temporary emotions. Thank God that His word is our truth and our voice, when we can't hear, not the way we feel when we get up in the morning! And that, my friends, is what brings true joy.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Jennifer Maggio is a national voice for single mothers and hurting women. Her personal story has been featured in hundreds of media venues including The New York Times, Daystar Television, The 700 Club, and many others. She is CEO/Founder of The Life of a Single Mom Ministries, a national nonprofit that works with churches to develop single mom’s programs and ministries, totaling over 1600 groups currently.
The Life of a Single Mom has served over 500,000 single mothers over the last decade and counting. Maggio is an author of several books, including The Church and the Single Mom. For more information, visit www.jennifermaggio.com.
Jennifer Maggio is a mom to three, wife to Jeff, and founder of the national nonprofit, The Life of a Single Mom Ministries. She is author to four books, including The Church and the Single Mom. She was named one of the Top 10 Most Influential People in America by Dr. John Maxwell in 2017 and 2015 and has appeared in hundreds of media venues, including The New York Times, Family Talk Radio with Dr. James Dobson, Joni and Friends, and many others.
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