Where Are You?

Job 13: 23-24 How many are my iniquities and my sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. Why do you hide your face, and count me as your enemy?

Job is no longer answering his friends but praying to God to show him what he has done wrong. He is praying for an end to God's silence.

Have you ever felt like God has checked out, like He just isn't there? I have. Looking back it usually winds up that I was unwilling to here Him or had built some barrier to our communication. But not always. Sometimes He is just mysteriously silent. I was surprised to hear that Mother Teresa struggled with feeling close to God. Except for a short period in her famed career, she felt that God was silent and hidden from her. That makes her life all the more remarkable to me. I have the feeling that this happens to the best and most faithful of people and that God does it purposefully. Perhaps He is checking our resolve to walk the path upon which He has put us. It's not nearly such a walk in the pink clouds when we can't feel the presence of the Creator smiling upon us. Regardless, it's important to realize that this is one of the ways that He refines us and to have the confidence to do the next right thing even when we can't feel His warmth on our faces.

Almighty Father God, please make me mature in faith so that I will be able to discern Your will even when I cannot detect Your presence. Amen.