1011 神的沉默——然後呢？
聽見拉撒路病了，就在所居之地仍住了兩天。《約翰福音 11:6》
神是否以其沉默來信任你——一個具有重大意義的沉默呢？神的沉默實際上就是祂的回答。想想在伯大尼家中那些絕對寂靜的日子！在你的生命中可有什麼與那些日子相比嗎？神能像那樣信任你，還是你仍向祂求眼見的答覆呢？如果你拒絕在沒有所求的祝福情況下繼續前進，神會給你祝福，但祂的沉默是祂正在帶領進入你更奇妙認識祂自己的記號。你是否因為沒有聽到回應而在神面前哀痛？當你聽不到神的聲音時，你會發現祂以最親密的方式信任你——絕對的沉默，不是絕望的沉默，而是愉快的沉默，因為祂看到你可以承受更大的啟示。如果神已對你沉默，那麼，要讚美祂——祂正在把你帶入祂目的的主流。及時回應的實際證據，那是神的全權之事；時間之於神，不算什麼。有一段時間你可能會說：「我向神求餅，祂反給我石頭。」（見馬太福音7:9）。祂沒有給你石頭，而今天你發現祂給你「生命的糧」（約翰福音6:35）。
神沉默的奇妙，是祂的沉默具有感染力——它到達你的內心，讓你變得非常自信，以至於你可以誠實地說：「我知道神聽到我了。」祂的沉默正是祂聽到的證據。只要你認為神總是會回應你的禱告並祝福你，祂會這麼做，但祂永遠不會賜下祂沉默的恩典。如果耶穌基督讓你明白禱告是為了榮耀祂的天父，那麼，祂會賜下祂的親密的第一個記號——沉默。
來自章伯斯的智慧
我們永遠不能通過頭腦中的問題得到解答而進入神的國，只能通過獻身。《至善—禰偉大的救贖》
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