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believing in the silence

Sometimes it's easy to feel like our prayers don't go any higher than the ceiling.

 We don't feel like God is hearing us, and we definitely aren't hearing anything from Him.

 Have you ever felt like that? If you're honest, I imagine you'll say you have. I know I have.

 You know what? You aren't alone.
Mother Teresa, a woman know the world over for her faith, told those close to her that her heart was broken because she felt like she was living silence for somewhere around five decades.

 Seriously. 50 years feeling like she wasn't hearing anything from God.

 Numbers vary, but Noah and his family were cooped up on the ark for somewhere around a year. I can't say for sure, but I imagine it is safe to say that they felt like God was being pretty silent there for a while.

 I don't know about you, but when I feel like that I just want to quit.
I get this thought in my head that apparently God doesn't care about what I'm doing because He's not giving me any input. Like David, I cry out, 
"How long, O LORD? 
Will You forget me forever? 
How long will You hide Your face from me? 
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? 
How long will my enemy triumph over me? 
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. 
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; 
my enemy will say, 'I have overcome [her],' 
and my foes will rejoice when I fall." (Psalm 13:1-4)

 Those 50 years of silence in Mother Teresa's life? They were filled with the work she was doing for God's children who had been discarded or shunned.

 While Noah was on the ark, maybe wondering from time to time if God had forgotten about him, he was taking care of the smelly, loud, frustrating animals.

 Sometimes we feel like we are living in silence. We can't hear God and we don't feel like He hears us. Genesis 8:1, though, says (in part), "God remembered Noah," and I have faith He will always remember each of us, too.

 In the meantime, we should continue with the work and make the rest of that chapter from David be the cry of our heart:
"But I trust in Your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in Your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for He has been good to me."
(Psalm 13:5-6)

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Thoughts? I would love to hear them!
~Mandy

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