Silence. Silence. Silence.
That is all I heard every time I prayed about what assisted living facility would be best for my mother. Where was God? I reminded Him of His promise in James 1:5 that if we ask in faith for wisdom, He will give it without holding back.
His response? Silence. Day after day, silence.
He had clearly shown me where to move my father years before. So why wasn’t He answering my prayers?
Or was He?
It seemed like an eternity of asking. Then one day as I pulled into a parking space at my mother’s bank in order to deposit a check for her, the Lord impressed on my heart to ask the bank teller for a recommendation.
A bank teller? A total stranger?
That made absolutely no sense to me! I wasn’t sure I had the nerve to do that.
I walked up to the first teller, put my mother’s check and deposit slip on the counter and was totally surprised to hear: “Betty! How is she? I’ve missed seeing her!”
“Well actually she’s in the hospital, and we need to move her to an assisted living facility,” I replied, stunned at such a personal greeting from a teller.
Immediately the teller named a Christian facility just five minutes from my mother’s home. “It’s the best!” she said.
Just like that, I had God’s perfect answer!
It is easy to jump to some wrong conclusions when our prayers seem to go unanswered like: God doesn’t care about this, or care about me, or maybe He’s mad at me, or busy with more important issues.
In the situation above, it was simply a matter of His perfect timing. It stretched my faith. It taught me to persevere in spite of the silence.
If the answer depends on another person, perhaps in the silence God is preparing that person to meet our need. I liken it to sitting in a theater waiting for the curtain to go up. It takes time for the actors to get in their places and the scenery to be just right.
Matthew 7:7 exhorts us to ask and keep on asking (in the original Greek). So, if you are waiting on God’s answer, don’t give up! The curtain will go up at just the right time. Your faith-filled prayers are a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If it matters to you, it matters to Him.