Daily Devotional: When Christ Is Silent

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​Obeying Christ is easy if He is speaking, but what about when He is silent?

Matthew 18:3

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

I have been challenging you to completely surrender your life to Christ, telling you Jesus will lift the burden of every decision from you. I would not be fair if I did not also tell you sometimes Christ is silent.

When I was first saved, I asked Jesus about every decision. What to eat, what to wear, where to go. Like a little child, I turned to daddy to see what He thought. Like a great father, Jesus always told me what to do. Then, one day, I asked, and He was silent.

I was terrified. What should I do? Then I heard His gentle voice suggest in my heart, I want to see what you will do on your own.

God tests His children. He leads, guides, teaches, and upholds. Every now and then, He steps away and sees if we have been listening. Every parent knows that some day he or she needs to be silent and watch what the child does. The training wheels are eventually removed.

Does this mean that Christ will no longer carry every burden for me? Absolutely not. He will still give you perfect peace and liberty from all your worries. He will always be by your side. However, He expects you to grow.

The first time a child reaches for a fire, a parent rightfully stops the child. After years of instructing the child to avoid fire, the parent at some point expects the child to know to stay away from the flame. Even so, after teaching us time and again to avoid certain sins, God expects us to know to refuse evil. If we come to a circumstance where we have to choose whether or not to lie and the Holy Spirit is not directing us, He is simply trusting us to make the right decision.
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God’s silence is actually a compliment; He is saying, I have given you everything you need to make the right decision and I trust you with the responsibility of this decision. This does not in any way reduce our dependency on God; it simply means we can be dependent on Him even when He is silent, relying on His teachings and how He has directed us in the past to know what to do. We are not reverting to making our own decision; we are mirroring the choices and values we have learned from Christ. So, do not panic when God goes silent. Instead, recall what you have learned from Him. Then your path will be clear.

• Reflection: Are you growing in your obedience, learning how to obey Him from past lessons? Leave a comment below to share how God is transforming your life.