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Photo by Charles F. Stanley.
Daily Devotion

When God Is Silent

Our heavenly Father is always working for His glory, which is also for our good.

November 8, 2023

John 11:1-44

When we face an urgent need, our prayers become fervent and our desire for a quick answer intensifies. It seems that if the Lord doesn’t intervene soon, the very thing we dread could happen. And without a detectable response from God, we may feel as if He doesn’t care—but Scripture assures us He does (1 Pet. 5:7).

This may have been how Mary and Martha felt after asking Jesus to come heal their brother Lazarus. They knew the Lord loved them, but when He didn’t show up on time, their pain overtook their faith. Both women voiced their disappointment: “If You had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11: 21, 32).

We’ve all said or thought something similar when God didn’t answer our prayers as we hoped. But unlike Mary and Martha, we know from Scripture that God’s purpose in all His choices for us is His glory (v. 4). His goal is not to inflict pain unnecessarily but to let Christ’s life shine through us in hardship, to stabilize our confidence in God’s goodness, and to strengthen our trust in His loving sovereignty. His glory is for our good, and in this we can rejoice.

Bible in One Year: John 20-21

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