1011 神的沉默——然后呢？
听见拉撒路病了，就在所居之地仍住了两天。《约翰福音 11:6》
神是否以其沉默来信任你——一个具有重大意义的沉默呢？神的沉默实际上就是祂的回答。想想在伯大尼家中那些绝对寂静的日子！在你的生命中可有什么与那些日子相比吗？神能像那样信任你，还是你仍向祂求眼见的答复呢？如果你拒绝在没有所求的祝福情况下继续前进，神会给你祝福，但祂的沉默是祂正在带领进入你更奇妙认识祂自己的记号。你是否因为没有听到回应而在神面前哀痛？当你听不到神的声音时，你会发现祂以最亲密的方式信任你——绝对的沉默，不是绝望的沉默，而是愉快的沉默，因为祂看到你可以承受更大的启示。如果神已对你沉默，那么，要赞美祂——祂正在把你带入祂目的的主流。及时回应的实际证据，那是神的全权之事；时间之于神，不算什么。有一段时间你可能会说：「我向神求饼，祂反给我石头。」（见马太福音7:9）。祂没有给你石头，而今天你发现祂给你「生命的粮」（约翰福音6:35）。
神沉默的奇妙，是祂的沉默具有感染力——它到达你的内心，让你变得非常自信，以至于你可以诚实地说：「我知道神听到我了。」祂的沉默正是祂听到的证据。只要你认为神总是会回应你的祷告并祝福你，祂会这么做，但祂永远不会赐下祂沉默的恩典。如果耶稣基督让你明白祷告是为了荣耀祂的天父，那么，祂会赐下祂的亲密的第一个记号——沉默。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们永远不能通过头脑中的问题得到解答而进入神的国，只能通过献身。《至善—祢伟大的救赎》
1011 God’s Silence— Then What?
When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. —John 11:6
Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment. —The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 R