Waiting In Silence

Across the years I have run into a person or two who were so determined to get an answer from God that they said they were going to get on their knees and pray until it came.  They were the kind of folks who would set out to pray all night to get their prayer answered.  And, while I have never done such an all nighter, there have been times when I have prayed with such an attitude.  Looking back I suspect God must have shook His head and muttered something like, "Just who does he think he is....God?"  

To pray with such a mindset puts us in a different category than the one who comes before God with a waiting spirit.  Even as waiting anywhere is difficult for most of us, to wait on God to do whatever it is that is about to do is all but an impossible task.  The problem often has to do with our expectations when we pray.  Those who pray with a waiting spirit are not seeking the things God gives, but God.  Those who pray with a waiting spirit are not after some blessing, but simply seeking the presence of God.  What He does or does not give is irrelevant.  All that matters is that He is present. 

And, of course, there are also those moments when waiting takes us to a place where it seems that God has suddenly become silent.  We seek a Word and there is none.  We seek a sense of holy presence that never comes.  These are the real moments that measure the spirit which dwells in us.  To wait in such moments is a discipline that is not practiced by the spiritually faint of heart, but is more likely to come only after prayers that bear the scars of disappointment, struggle, and hardship for it is our journey through such difficult hours that bring us to a confidence that God never forsakes even though every thing around us seems to say otherwise.