Posted on by intentional4christ

When God is Silent

Today we celebrate Good Friday and we remember all the activities of that fateful day many years ago, when Jesus was crucified. And then we will wait for Easter Sunday to celebrate Jesus’ triumphant resurrection. But what about Saturday? For many of us the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday passes uneventfully. Can you imagine what that day must have been like for Jesus’ disciples and followers? After everything he had said and done, the reality of his death probably sunk in on Saturday as the city returned to normalcy post-burial of Jesus. Their leader was gone; His voice and power and influence silenced in death.

Have you ever felt like you are living in the in-between of life, just like the day between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday when God seems silent? When prayers seem to be bouncing off the wall? Where your Saviour is no where to be found? I have felt God’s silence for a few months now. I have shared in multiple posts how I have prayed for things that are really important to me and God seems silent; I have prayed for health and seen the opposite in my life; I have prayed for strength and instead have experienced weakness; I have prayed for soundness of mind and instead have been unsettled and terrified by my thoughts. I am living in the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

But friends, we know from scripture that on the Saturday in-between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, God was NOT silent. His Spirit was actively making Jesus alive in the spirit! While to the world Jesus was dead and silent, He was very much alive in the spirit and fighting a victorious battle over death and captivity. Jesus was securing the keys to hell and death so that no one would ever have to separated eternally from God (unless by choice); He was ensuring that death lost its sting and power forever for any one who believes in Him. While the world experienced his silence in death, Jesus was in fact busy working the miracle of the salvation and His Spirit was preparing for the miracle of the Resurrection the next day:

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,  in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison… 1 Peter 3: 18- 19 BSB

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you. Romans 8:11 BSB

God was very much present on Saturday as He was on Friday and on Sunday. So today, I pray for you even as I pray for myself that you will be encouraged in the in-between times when God seems silent. I pray that your Saturday (your period of silence) will not be too long so as to leave you discouraged but instead may this prophecy of old be fulfilled in your very lives during this Easter season:

“See, your Savior comes! Look, His reward is with Him, and His recompense goes before Him”

Isaiah 62:11

Amen! and Happy Easter to you all.

Yours Truly

Posted on by intentional4christ · 1 Comment

You are being pursued by God

Over the last couple of weeks, I have spent some time in the book of Isaiah and as I have reflected on the scriptures I have read, one thing has become more obvious to me: God pursues us as much as we pursue Him.

The latter chapter of the book Isaiah is filled with imagery of a God pursuing a people who although do not reciprocate the love they are shown, are loved nonetheless. God chases after a people that He has chosen to be His and lavishes his love on them. As I read through those scriptures, I got nostalgic. I was reminded of a time when I was a single lady and the lengths my husband, then suitor, made to woo me- the long walks, the endless conversations, the trips back and forth between cities, and the gifts. Inasmuch as he was trying to catch my eye and impress me, so was I also trying to impress him; and this dance continued until we got married and this wooing continues till date.

Isaiah 59 sets the stage by describing how God wants to do so much more for the people of Israel but then their sins have separated them from God and He is so displeased with their state that He himself puts on righteousness as a breastplate and salvation as a helmet and comes to the rescue of his people:

He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.

Isaiah 61:10 NIV

Not only does he save them but also showers blessings on them and promises them an eternal inheritance. In chapter 61, we see Isaiah appreciating this love, just like it looked like for me many years ago when I started to fall in love with my man:

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels

Isaiah 62: 3-5 NIV

We go on to see how much God figuratively pursues Israel in this courtship until He marries them and changes their name from deserted and desolate to married (sound familiar?):

You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 62: 3-5 NIV

As I read through these scriptures, I come face-to-face with a very relational and relatable God. I am reminded that inasmuch as my Christian walk is about drawing close to God, and getting to know Him, and giving Him control, and surrendering to Him, it is also about a God who continues to woo me with His great and awesome and mighty deeds. As a bridegroom delights in his bride, so the Lord delights in me and wants to impress me.

As we inch our way into the Holy week, may this thought comfort you and remind you that you are fully known and loved by God.

Yours Truly