At Easter, most of the focus is on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday (Easter Sunday). However, for many of us, much of our lives is lived on Holy Saturday, that time between the hope shattering events of Good Friday and the victory of Easter Sunday, that time when it seems like all is lost and it will never get better. This is part 2 of a 2 part series concerning this topic.
In part 1, I talked about the period of God’s silence in the intertestamental period, between the Old and New Testaments, about the long time between the for-telling of the coming of Jesus and His birth. I talked about how discouraging that period of time would have been and how God was working even during the silence. For much more about that, please check out part 1. You can find that here:
http://www.scottduck.com/article-we-live-on-saturday-part-1-by-scott-duck/
So, while we’re waiting to see what God is doing, what do we do in the silence?
We must be patient. He may be preparing us and/or preparing the way for us and that often takes time. We must make sure we’re listening. Is He really silent? If not, we must try to listen to Him. If He truly is silent, we want to hear Him when he breaks His silence. Either way, we must hear Him. In order to do that, we must be quiet.
Look at Mark 9, verses 2 through 7.
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.
His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—
because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.
And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”
During the transfiguration, Peter, James, and John stood watching as Jesus was transformed. Peter, afraid and not knowing what to do, started throwing out ideas. We sometimes do that. We feel fear and other emotions and start relying on those emotions and just start seeing what our intellect can come up with. Often, our intentions truly are good. I’m sure Peter meant well too but God is looking for more than just good intentions. In verse 7, they heard the voice of God saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him! That is what we must do. Hear Him! This is an exclamatory statement. God wasn’t gently saying this. He was basically saying “Hush!”
Psalm 46:10 says “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” I think this is one of the simplest and yet one of the most important verses in Scripture and it is too often overlooked. If we want God to shine in our lives and shine through us into the lives of others, we have to get to know Him. However, many of us lead such busy lives that we don’t make the time to spend with Him and listen to His voice. If we don’t make the effort to listen to His voice, we will, by default, listen to the voice of our own intellect and emotions and that is what we will then act on and also convey to the world. Don’t misunderstand what God is saying here, when he says to be still. This is not a timid suggestion. It is a command, and it is vital that we obey it. If we don’t want to just add to the noise, we have to take time to shut out the noise, so that we can hear Him, so that we can come to truly know Him. We have to hush and listen.
It isn’t enough just to be quiet though. We must proactively get to know Him, if we are to hear Him. How do we get to know Him?
We have to regularly get in the Word and pray.
Our relationship with Christ, like any relationship, requires communication. If you don’t talk to someone and listen to what they have to say, if you don’t communicate with them, then you can’t really have a relationship with them. Our relationship with Christ is no different. We talk to Him primarily through prayer and we listen to Him primarily through His Word.
Psalm 119:11 says “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” Getting in the Word is primarily how we come to really know God. If you want to truly know Him, getting in the Word can’t consist of just hearing a sermon and maybe a Sunday school lesson every week. You have to really dig into it. This doesn’t have to be anything complicated. You could read an online or print daily bible study or just a good book by a reputable and respected Christian author. You could listen to a podcast. As you do this, if you find something confusing, ask your pastor or another Christian you respect, do a little research, and pray for God to make the meaning clear to you. The main thing is to do something that gets you in the Word every day.
Let me emphasize something here. Sometimes people will say “I know what the Bible says but I really feel like”. Stop right there. If you feel like you are being lead to do something or to take a position that is contrary to Scripture, then that is not of God, period, end of story.
The Bible was written a very long time ago and it’s easy to think that some of it may no longer apply in today’s world. After all, times change, don’t they? Yes, times do change but God does not. See Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8. His standards are the same today as they were two thousand years ago and they will remain the same forever. So, today’s culture may make it hard to understand some of the standards set forth in Scripture but it does not lessen the relevance of those standards.
Don’t limit yourself to just the New Testament. The fact that God never changes means that the Old Testament is very relevant to knowing God. Some Christians believe that only the New Testament is relevant in today’s world. They point out that we are no longer under the law but we are now under grace. They are correct about that. However, the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is the same God. He does not change. The things that we learn about His heart and His character from the Old Testament are just as true and relevant today as they were then. For example, do we still execute people for committing adultery? No, not in the United States we don’t. That is a part of Old Testament law that no longer applies under grace. However, does God still hate it, is it still wrong in God’s eyes, is it still a sin? Yes, absolutely. So, things that we learn from the Old Testament can also be used to test our perceptions of God’s leading.
How you feel doesn’t matter. What God’s Word says matters. As you spend time in the Word, over time, you will better understand why it tells you to do and not to do the things that it does. You still won’t understand everything, though. There will still be some things that may seem unfair or just not make sense to you. That’s OK. You don’t always have to understand but you do have to strive to be obedient if you want to be a disciple.
Look at James 1, verses 21 through 25.
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
Verse 21 refers to the “implanted word”. If His Word is going to make a difference in our life, it can’t go in one ear and out the other. It has to take root. We can’t read It or hear It and say “That’s encouraging” or “Yeah that’s right” and then just forget it. We can’t just hear it. Non Christians hear it too. We have to do it. We have to live It. Verse 23 talks about observing ourselves in a mirror. You see, that is much of the purpose of the Word, to remind us of how much we need Him, because we can’t do this by ourselves. But, in Him, we can. We must, if we’re going to live for Him, if we’re going to become more like Him, if we’re going to truly hear Him. We must remember that it is ultimately He Who reveals all Truth. He won’t reveal more to us, if we aren’t acting on what He has already revealed.
Now, let’s talk about prayer.
Look at First Thessalonians 5, verses 16 through 18.
Rejoice always,
pray without ceasing,
in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Pray. Pray every day. Pray often. Pray about everything. If you want a real relationship, don’t just pray every now and then, when you need something. Did you ever have a friend who you only hear from when they want something from you? Did you feel like you had a real relationship with them or did you just feel like they were trying to use you? You felt used, didn’t you? Why would we think that our relationship with God would be any different?
Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. I don’t think he meant for us to literally never, for one second, stop praying. The way I think of it is keeping the channel open. If something happens that you’re thankful for, take a second and thank Him. If something happens that scares you or that you aren’t sure how to handle, take a second and ask Him to help you. And certainly there’s a time to be on your knees before Him but you can do this, without stopping, just as you go through your day. And I can tell you, from a lot of personal experience, that prayer does work.
Don’t just talk to Him. Listen. He does talk to us primarily through His word but He also speaks to us in other ways. Listen for that small soft voice of the Holy Spirit in your soul. When you feel it telling you to do something, first test it against Scripture, to help to make sure it is the Spirit and not you. If it is consistent with Scripture, then do it.
Look at Second Corinthians 3, verses 17 and 18.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Through the Word and prayer, as we get to truly know His heart, our heart should begin to more closely resemble His heart. That is what the word “Christian” means, “Christ like”. As that happens, we will have a more clear idea what He would have us do and a more clear understanding of why. However, He often won’t reveal what He would have us do, until He knows that we will do it. We must surrender and then seek. We can’t say “Tell me what you want Lord and then I will let you know if I will do it”. We must say “Lord, I will do what you ask, if you will only tell me what that is”. Sometimes God is silent, not because He doesn’t have anything to say, but because He knows we aren’t yet ready to receive what He has to say.
What’s the bottom line of all this? To sum it up, in His silence, we must be silent, so that we can hear Him. We must surrender, so that we are not the cause of His silence, so that we will be ready to receive what He has to say. We must get to know Him, so that we will know His voice, when we finally do hear it. When summarized like that, it sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. Truly following Christ will be the most rewarding and the hardest thing you will ever do. When we fully surrender to Him, we make an enemy of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and they are not nice enemies to have. Greater is He Who is within us than he who is in the world but he who is in the world isn’t a pushover and he doesn’t give up without a fight and he fights dirty. That’s where the hard part comes in. But the rewards, oh the rewards. To be joint heirs with Christ, with He Who loved us so much that He gave Himself for us, to spend eternity in fellowship with Him. The hardships are temporal but the rewards are eternal.
If you want to find out how to experience those eternal rewards, as well as having the best friend you will ever have, either in this life or the next, please check out the “The Most Important Thing” section of this website. May the peace that only He can give be with you.
