What To Do When God Seems Silent

Is it just me, or does it seem that when we pray for others, God answers but sometimes when we pray for ourselves He seems silent? I’ve been estranged from my younger sister for twelve years. Out of five children, she is the baby of the family and I am the middle child. Being that we were raised in the house of a single mom meant we were close, very close. My eldest sister was like mother #2; my second sister was my rival because we were only one and a half years apart; my brother, my twin was my partner in crime and my youngest sister was our heartbeat. She was the sweetest person I knew and if she was in need, we’d move heaven and hell for her. Anything she needed, we would provide and sometimes at the cost of us going without. She was our baby and we had to protect her at all costs.

Twenty years ago, she followed me off to college from Texas to Oklahoma and enrolled during my sophomore year. I was the A type of the two, and she again followed me to a place that, unfortunately, turned into a cult. Nine years later after things became bad enough, I left. By then, I was married and we had two young children to protect. At the time, I believed my sister would leave as well, but she didn’t.

I prayed for a long time and confronted her once but she did not leave. I cried out to God, yet she still stayed. I even took to screaming at God and still nothing. I’ve gone through all the levels of grief and no miraculous reunion. The irony is that over the course of twelve years, I’ve witnessed God performing all sorts of miracles in my personal life and in the lives of others. Yet in regards to my baby sister, He seems silent!

I will not pretend to understand what God is doing. And sometimes, I would shed tears of sorrow. I’ve missed her terribly BUT I know that God is still in control. What matters most is not that I hear God but that He hears me. He (God) hears the cries of his people and answers them. I know that the timing of His answer is not necessarily my timing but perfect, nonetheless. David says in Psalm 31:22, “In my alarm, I said, ‘I am cut off from your sight!’ Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.”

Know that when God seems silent, it is because He is listening to us. He is not ignoring our pleas for help but quietly working all things for our good.