Answer Me!

Sometimes God seems distant. We pray but God stays silent and you just have to wonder if God's promises "To ask and you'll receive" are false.  We all have experienced this.

Read Job 30: 16-20.

Talk about silence!  Job could tell us stories!  Job was a good man, yet God allowed evil to harass him.  Job prayed but received no answer, just silence.

Then God does speak to Job (Job 40: 1-5)  Note Job's response.

Finish by reading Job 42: 1-6.

There's something to be learned from Job's story, especially in our prayer life.

Sometimes prayers aren't answered because they're wrong or we're not ready to understand.  God's time is not our time.  Maybe it's the way we're asking.  Is there sin in your life?  Well, tell God, what's bothering you. Go to Confession--get rid of what's stopping that loving relationship with God.

And then, there are times, after periods of silence, where we are rewarded by a far greater gift that what we were asking for.  I guess it all comes down to perseverance and trust.  And trusting means learning to bear the silence because He is always there, even when he doesn't answer.