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God's Deadly Silence!

For a believer in Christ the relationship with God is a living relationship because it is a relationship with a living God. This living relationship is possible because God and the worshipper are always in talking terms. The worshipper talks to God in worship, prayer and meditation. And God responds in various ways: sometimes by giving them great joy in his presence, sometimes by answering prayers and sometimes by endowing them with the "peace that transcends all understanding" (Phil 4:4) in order to pass through difficult patches in their life.

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God's word creates! That's what we learn from the first chapter of Genesis. Peter summarized the whole thing in just one verse: "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water" (2 Peter 3:5).

God speaks because he is the living God. He speaks to guide his people, to tell that what is going to happen, etc. False God's cannot speak or reveal themselves to their followers because they are dead. Psalm 115 describes what is dead gods like:

"But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them" (Psalm 115:4-8).

For a believer in Christ the relationship with God is a living relationship because it is a relationship with a living God. This living relationship is possible because God and the worshipper are always in talking terms. The worshipper talks to God in worship, prayer and meditation. And God responds in various ways: sometimes by giving them great joy in his presence, sometimes by answering prayers and sometimes by endowing them with the "peace that transcends all understanding" (Phil 4:4) in order to pass through difficult patches in their life.

However, there are times when this relationship turns to a monologue. At times we don't hear God speaking to us. The psalmist in Psalm 28 is going through that experience and he expresses his fear in verse 1: "If you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down to the pit (meaning: grave)." Many times we don't care when we haven't heard from God! However, a person like this psalmist cannot afford to live without hearing God's voice daily. I wish I had this longing for the voice of God and dependence on a living and speaking God.

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