It was 7:00 am on a Sunday morning.  I awoke to my child screaming out.  Darting from my bed toward his room, I found him sitting in a chair, eyes rolled back, his eleven-year-old body shaking. 

My son was having a seizure.

Being a silly kind of kid, for a few milliseconds I thought maybe he was playing.  But it didn’t take long to realize that something was very wrong.

I ran to retrieve my husband, who knelt before him.  He placed his hands upon his shaking body and began to pray, as I called 9-1-1.   

It was in that moment that God spoke to my child.

My son later told me that he could see us through flickering eyes, as though we were characters in an old movie.  That he could hear what was going on around him, though he could not speak. 

And he could not comprehend what was happening within his young body.

He said that when Dad began to pray, that is when he heard the divine words.  The words God audibly spoke: 

Everything is going to be OKAY.

Spoken to my son not once, but TWICE.

I love to reflect on this story because it is a beautiful reminder of how God showed up for a young one in a moment of intense fear.  How he gave peace to my child when I could not. 

THAT is the nature of our God.  And this heavenly nature is one reason why I am so devoted to Jesus.

Most of us would love for God to speak audibly to us like he did for my son that day. But usually that is not his way. 

More often, God speaks in other ways. 

He may use the encouragement of a friend, the words of a song, a scripture that jumps off the page, or an inexplicable peace that could only come from above.  Often times he arranges circumstances in a way only he can.

He speaks in a myriad of ways, and being a personal kind of God, they are often ways that could only have meaning for us.

But then there are those other seasons. The difficult ones. 

Those seasons in which God chooses to be silent.

These are the times when we are required to trust and to wait on God.

We may be praying for an answer that doesn’t seem to come, for freedom from a situation that doesn’t seem to end.  Or we may be trudging through a spiritual desert where we struggle to hear God at all. 

In those seasons, it can seem that he isn’t answering, moving, intervening, or even listening.

But it is ever so important during those seasons to grip on, white-knuckled, to our faith.

Because silence doesn’t equal absence.  It simply equals silence.

Sometimes his silence is there to grow us.  Perhaps more prayer is needed, or there are things he wants us to learn.  He may be putting needed pieces together.

He might be waiting on a heart change. 

Or sometimes, for reasons only God knows, it’s just not time yet.

It helps to remember that God sees far beyond our today.  To remind ourselves that whatever his reason, he is bigger than our circumstance, and he sees details we cannot see.

The Biblical tale of Nehemiah is a great example of this. 

In short, the outer wall of Jerusalem had been in ruins for years, leaving its people vulnerable to attack. Nehemiah learns of this, and appeals to God for help in rebuilding the wall (Nehemiah chapters 1 & 2).

Chapter 1 tells us that Nehemiah asks God, “Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me.”

Chapter 2 tells us when and how the king finally responds.

These two events occur a full 5 months apart.

Five months between the asking and the receiving.  

Not much is said about the period between Nehemiah’s prayer and his answer, but I imagine it was a long and hard wait.  Like we often do, he likely wondered when God would ever respond to his request. 

He may have had moments when he wondered whether his prayer had been heard at all.

But it was heard. 

Because God hears every prayer. 

The result was a massive restoration to the wall.  The rebuilding itself took only 52 days.

Like Nehemiah, we may have periods when we don’t know what God is up to or where he seems to have gone. 

But when we persevere, we learn to wait on God and trust that he knows best.

Maybe you have a story to tell about when you have been fortunate enough to hear God audibly speak to you, like he did for my son that day. Those feel like nothing short of a miracle.

Maybe you have a story of God showing you something through a way only he can.  Those are stories we cherish, because they really do build our faith.

Or maybe you are in a place of waiting on God, wondering why he isn’t answering your prayer, or confused about what to do next.  These are difficult seasons, ones we will all likely face.

If this is your current state, my heart goes out to you.  I have been there too.

Just know that you are not alone.  Like Nehemiah, perhaps God is giving it just a little more time.

Dig deep, my friend, because when you persevere, your faith will eventually take over and you will find strength you didn’t know you had.

God will eventually speak, in his time, and in his way.