GOD'S PRESENCE (4).

*WISDOM FOR TODAY.*

*GOD'S PRESENCE (4).*

*Scripture Treasure.*

Psalm 46:1 *God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.*

*Insight and Highlight.*

Not everyone finds God's presence in their times of distress

*Scripture Commentaries.*

While the wicked in their abomination can drive God's active intervention away, the righteous often experience God's inactivity in times of trouble.

This is the focus as we look at why God often restrains Himself in the time of a believer's trouble.

This will lead us as we look at the second reason of His ability to remain quiet in their times of trouble.

First is to achieve a divine purpose.

So while it is an established truth that God is present in everything in the world, God may be quiet yet He can be present and active.

God's inactivity as it may seem to us when we do not see Him at work or in answers to our prayers is not dormancy.

God is never dormant. In His quietness, in His speaking either 'yes' or 'no', He remains relevant and active, always.

While we must know that God's quietness is not God's absence, the believer must know that God may be quiet but not absent.

God first spoke to Job in the midst of his trouble in Job 38 by speaking out of a storm, beginning a series of speeches that last through Chapter 41. 

God's word through Eliphaz to his other two friends in Job 42: 7-8 *".....that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job."* clearly explained that though God had not spoken any word until Job 38, He had been a silent listener and been following every event in the life of Job and those around him.

Second is that He may not respond in the time of trouble in order to achieve a divine purpose.

God may choose to act through a providential delay to fulfill a purpose.

God's time is not our time

Isaiah 55:8-9

*For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.*

*For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.*

Jesus did not quickly attend to the house of Lazarus after hearing he was sick, John 11:6.

Though Martha wished He had, stating that if Jesus had come earlier Lazarus would not have died, John 11: 21, 32 but Jesus came to declare God's power to raise a dead man who had died four days and stinking, John 11:25-44.

Third, it may be a time of trial.

It may be a time to try you.

Isaiah 48:10 *Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.*

We may not see Him at work but He is busy working to come through for us.

*Remorse corner.*

While sin will withdraw God's presence in times of trouble, it is important to know that not everyone who experiences a quiet response from God in their times of distress is in sin.

*Call to Word action.*

God is watching in His quietness.

*The Christian clarion duty.*

God is working in His quietness.

*Prayer.*

Lord, remember me in Jesus name.

Good morning all and have a blessed day.

God bless you.

Shalom.