Fear And Silence

Fear And Silence

Just recently, I did a series on encounters with God throughout the Bible. In that study, we learned a lot about who God is and what He does.

We learned that God is present even when we don’t realize it. He makes Himself known in ways that teach us we can lean on Him and depend on Him.

Lately, there have been two significant concerns that have been on my mind. The first is the fear I see in so many people around me. The world is a scary place. There is uncertainty all around us every day. People are afraid, and many don’t know how to deal with that fear anymore.

The second is something closely related to those fears: people don’t know how to wait on God. By that, I don’t mean that God isn’t answering prayer or that He doesn’t hear. I mean that people often feel like He isn’t there. In their times of struggle, they often feel that God is silent.

Over the next several weeks, we’re going to walk through two series that will complement each other and open our eyes in a deeper way.

First, we’re going to talk about fear—fear of the unknown, fear of people, fear of death and rejection, fear of failure, fear of the future and even fear of the weakness of our own faith. These are real struggles that many of us deal with regularly.

Then, we’re going to talk about silence. In the Bible, silence is an incredibly important thing. God often speaks in the silence.

Elijah heard God in a gentle whisper. Jesus experienced the silence of God on the cross. David felt it in the wilderness and Habakkuk wrestled with it on the watchtower.

Job endured God’s silence in his suffering. The persistent widow experienced it in her praying and the disciples while the tomb was sealed.

But the tomb didn’t stay sealed, the widow’s prayers were answered and David and Habakkuk wrote words that still shape our faith today.

So let me ask you: Do you have fears? Do you have days of silence with God?

The beauty of Scripture is that it doesn’t hide our struggles—it reveals them. It shows us real people facing real fears, walking through real silence and learning to trust a very real God.

That’s what we’re going to learn together—How to face fear and silence and use them to grow in faith and hope.