“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” (Proverbs 25:2)
The silence of God can be terrifying. We all have circumstances in our lives that we desperately need God’s opinion on. We cry out to Him daily, begging for an answer to our dilemma. We search the Scriptures, eager to hear just one word from Him. But time goes on, and your spirit begins to faint as you still hear nothing from God. You begin to think something is wrong with you, that there’s some sin in your life that’s preventing you from hearing your Lord. So you plead with Him to reveal that to you, too. And still, nothing. The silence goes on. You do all you know to do; you keep searching, keep talking to Him, keep waiting for Him to break through all the barriers and soak you in His gentle, overwhelming presence. But it feels like He’s hiding. You’ve looked everywhere you can, but you still can’t find Him. All you really want to do is give up.
And then, out of nowhere, God speaks. Suddenly all your doubts and fears fly out the window as He pours His peace into you. All the searching and waiting and praying now seem worth it as you enjoy this sweet fellowship with your Creator, all the more precious for its being so rare. Solomon’s words begin to make sense to you: it truly is glorious to seek out what God has concealed.
But even when He does speak, He only gives you a little piece of the puzzle. He doesn’t tell you everything at once; He just tells you what you need to know for the moment. He always keeps something hidden, something for you to seek out. It’s almost like a treasure hunt; God lays out hundreds of clues, never revealing exactly what the treasure is, but all the while leading you closer and closer to it. This can honestly be frustrating at times. We all wish that God would just speak clearly, that He would have an audible voice or maybe write a message on the wall. But God delights in revealing things little by little. And somewhere in the childlike part of our hearts, we delight in finding it out.
The thing is, God knows us far better than we know ourselves. He knows that we like a challenge, that when things are too easy we become bored. But more than that, He wants us to learn how to trust Him. If He showed us exactly how everything would happen, where would be the need for faith? So He only reveals what’s right in front of us, encouraging us to take that next step and wait for Him to show the next one. It’s not always fun. It’s hard to move forward when you don’t know what you’re moving towards. But God does know. He’s hidden our future, and He encourages us to seek it out with Him. And in the end, there is nothing more exhilarating than discovering what He has hidden for us.
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