Closer Than You Think: WHEN SILENCE FEELS LIKE DISTANCE

God has felt quiet for a while and you’re not sure what to do with that. If your prayers feel like they hit the ceiling, if worship feels dry, and if Scripture feels strangely flat, we want you to hear this clearly: you’re not disqualified from intimacy with God. Silence can feel like distance, but silence is not the same as absence.

We open Psalm 22 and sit with one of the most honest lines in the Bible: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Then we follow the arc of the psalm as it moves from pain to petition to praise. We talk about the difference between complaining to God and complaining about God, and why keeping the conversation alive is already the beginning of a turnaround. We also unpack David’s “record book” approach: when you can’t feel God in the present, you can remember what He’s done in the past and build a case against your own despair.

Then we connect Psalm 22 to Jesus on the cross in Matthew 27:46, and why quoting that first line points to a psalm that ends in vindication. From there, we get practical about why God might feel silent: sometimes He’s working, sometimes He’s waiting for you to trust what He already said, sometimes quiet deepens communion, and sometimes silence calls for honest confession. The cross is the verdict, and it says you are loved.

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend in a dry season, and leave a review so more people can find hope when God feels silent.

Transcript

When God Feels Far

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I want to start today by giving somebody in this audience permission to say something they've been afraid to say. Here it is. God has felt silent for a while now and you don't know what to do with that. You've been praying and the heavens they just feel like brass. You've been in worship and the fire that used to be there don't come so easily anymore. It just isn't there. You open your Bible and the words they just feel flat. And the worst part is that you're not even sure what you did wrong, or even if you did anything wrong. He just feels far. Can I tell you something? That experience does not disqualify you from the intimacy with God. In fact, some of the most intimate seasons with God I have ever walked through begin in that exact same place. Silence is not the same as absence. And today I want to make sure you know the difference. Welcome back to the Christian Cafe. This is episode four of Closer Than You Think. And if you've been waiting for an episode that meets you where you actually are, this is the one. Guys, I hope you are ready for a word from the Gospels today. I'm excited about this next episode. We have one episode left, but today's episode is going to be powerful. And I want you to get every bit of it because we've all gone through those seasons, dry seasons, where we thought God was never there. He never hurt us. Our prayer just seemed to hit the ceiling and bounce back. But I promise you, he's always been there.

Psalm 22 Gives You Words

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Let's start with the most honest cry in all scriptures. And it's found in Psalms chapter 22 and verse 1. And David is talking here. He's actually praying to God. And it starts out and says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me? And from the words of my groaning. Have you ever prayed those prayers before? I want you to hear something before we go one step further. This verse is in your Bible. God put it there. The Holy Spirit inspired a man to write it down, write down the words, Why have you forsaken me? And then God said, Let's keep it there. Let's print that. Let every generation read it. Which means the dry season you're walking through right now, God is not embarrassed by it. He made room for it because it's in his own book. But here's the question I want to answer today. Because Psalms 22 doesn't end in verse one. By the time David gets to verse 24, listen to what he's saying. For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him. But when he cried to him, he heard. See, verse one says, Why have you forsaken me? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But in verse 24, he says, God has not hidden his face from me. Same man, same Psalms, same situation. So what happened between verse one and verse 24? Because whatever happened to David in those 23 verses is exactly what needs to happen to somebody listening to this episode.

Complaining To God Vs About God

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See, David, he complained to God, but not about God. There is a difference. Let's look at verse one again. He said, My God, my God. He said that twice. See, David feels forsaken. But he's still saying, My God. See, the silence felt like distance, but David never let the silence become a departure from God. He didn't stop talking to God about the fact that God felt silent. Think about that. His complaint was a prayer. Let me ask you this. How many times that we've not heard God speak, and when all of a sudden we think he's left us, and immediately think, well, why should I pray to somebody that's not listening to me, that's not around? See, David didn't let that happen. He didn't let the silence from God feel like he needed to depart from God and go find somebody else that was listening. Think about that. And church, there is a world of difference between complaining to God and complaining about God. See, one keeps the conversation live, the other walks out of the room. Some of you have been in a dry season and the enemy has been whispering in your ear, if he's silent, why keep praying? I'll tell you why. Because the moment your complaining turns into prayer instead of walking away, the turnaround has already started. It may take 23 verses to show up, but it started the moment you kept saying, My God. I hope you heard that. You see, the moment you stopped complaining and started praying about the situation, not letting the enemy get in your ear and tell you not to pray, it started turning around right then. And you kept saying, My God, my God. See, you're still claiming victory because he's still your God.

Pulling Receipts From God’s Past Faithfulness

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See, David rehearsed God's track record here. This is another reason that David did not depart from God. See, let's watch David see what he does next. Because this is deliberate. This psalm swings like a pendulum. He complains in verse one and two, and then verse three opens with two of the most powerful words in the whole psalm. But you. Can you say but you with me? Can you say that? Say but you out loud. But you. He says, but you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel. But you, God. David interrupts his own feelings with the facts. And then he starts pulling receipts. In verses four and five, he talks about the history of his people, and he says, Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered. They trusted in you and were not ashamed. Then he gets personal in verses nine and ten with his own history. He says, But you are he who took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother's breast. I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother's womb, you have been my God. Amen. Do you see what he's doing? When David couldn't feel God in the present, he preached to himself about God in the past because he knew what God had done in his past. First, the corporate testimony, what you did for our fathers. Then the personal testimony, what you've done for me since before I could walk. See, David built a case against his own feelings using evidence his feelings couldn't refute. See, somebody needs to do that this week. When the heavens fill like brass, open up the record book. Go back and see what God has done for you. God delivered your fathers. God delivered you. The same God who carried you through the last season did not suddenly forget your address in this one. I know if I could see you right now and ask you to lift your hands, how many have ever been in a place where you felt God was silent and all of a sudden you just want to abandon God and you don't hear God pray, you don't hear God speak to you or nothing like that, and you just want to give up. You're gonna say, I'm done with this. Nothing's going right, everything's going wrong, I just don't know what to do anymore. God, you're not listening to me, nothing, you know, I'm praying and just nothing happened. How many is ever want to give up? I I'm gonna be honest with you, I have. I want to say, forget this now. You know, God, you're supposed to be there, and here I am, you know, in this situation. Yeah, maybe I've caused the situation, but you said you'd never leave me nor forsake me, regardless of the situation I'm in, but you'd always be there and you'd always help away, make a way of escape. We forget about what God had done for us before and all the testimonies that we testified for about how he's blessed us, how he's brought us through, how he's healed our body, how he's delivered us from all these things, how chains have broken off. But when we get right back into it, into another situation, we want to forget about that. We need to do like David. We need to begin to open up our record book. Open up and see where God delivered our fathers and delivered us from our past situation and begin to praise God.

The Dark Middle Of The Psalm

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See, David pressed through complaint into a partition. Now, I want to pretend the Psalms gets easier before it gets better because it doesn't. Verse 12 through 18, I think is the darkest stretch in the whole thing. You see, bulls are surrounding him, bones are out of joint, his heart melted like wax, his strength was dried up like a broken piece of pottery. And then that prophetic line that should stop every one of us in our tracks, they pierced my hands and my feet. Can we say ouch? I mean, really. But watch what happens in verse 19.

Turning Complaint Into A Request

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The complaint changes shape here. It says, But you, there's that but you again, oh Lord, do not be far from me. Oh my strength, hasten to help me. There it is again. But you. Except this time, it's not just remembering, he's requesting. He says, Deliver me, save me. See, David stopped describing the pit and started asking for the rope. Hallelujah. Hear me on this. Describing your dry season is not the same as praying your way out of it. At some point, complaining has to lean forward into partition. Let me say that again. At some point, our complaining has to lean forward into partition. Say, God, this hurts. It has to become, God help me. David made that turn. And the turn positioned him for what happened next. See, God hadn't answered him yet. But I want to show you something. Most people read right past. Let's look at verse 21 and don't miss where it turns.

Praise Before The Breakthrough

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Verse 21 says, Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me. Did you catch that? The verse starts with a cry for rescue, but it ends with a declaration of an answer prayer. In the same verse, mid-sentence, everything flips. Verse 1 through 21 are agony. Verse 22 through 31 are broke are unbroken praises. And here's the part that ought to shake somebody free today. The text never says his enemies left. They're still there. The bulls are still out there. The dogs are still circling. Nothing external changed between verses 21 and 22. So what changed? What changed? What changed is that somewhere in the pressing, listen, somewhere in the pressing, faith grabbed hold of assurance before deliver deliverance ever manifested. Did you get that? Faith grabbed hold of assurance before deliverance ever manifested itself. David got a knowing down in his spirit. You have answered me. And he started praising off the answer he received by faith. Not the rescue he could see with his eyes. His perspective changed before his situation did. The silence didn't live first. His worship broke through first. David's worship is what got him through it. The prayer and the worship. Can you say, My prayer and my worship will get me through this? Somebody in this cafe needs to hear that. You've been waiting for the circumstances to change so you can praise again. David flips that order. The praise came before the change. The worship is not the celebration after the breakthrough. Sometimes the worship is the breakthrough. Oh, hallelujah. I man, that's that's powerful right there. The worship is not the celebration after the breakthrough. Sometimes the worship is our breakthrough. Amen. So now verse 24 makes sense. After all that we talked about from verse 1, how he's crying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We come all the way down now to verse 24, after going through all the agony and everything, it says, For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him, but when he cried to him he heard. See in verse one, David felt forsaken. And by verse twenty four, David knows. David knows he never was. The feelings said his face is hidden. The truth said he heard you the whole time. Did you hear that? Our feelings say that God's face is hidden from us, but the word of God, the truth is he heard you the whole time you were praying. And that's the whole testimony of the dry season, church. Silence is not the same as absence. The God who felt far in verse one was listening in verse one. David just couldn't see it until he prayed his way, remembered his way, and worshiped his way to verse 21. Did you get that? The God who felt far in verse 1, he was listening in verse 1, but David, he couldn't see that. David had to start praying. Do you think that if David had never started praying, that he would have got delivered from his dry season? I tend to say not, because think about it in our own lives. Sometimes we'll go and and we're having a dry season, we think God's not there, and what's the first thing we do? We start complaining about God. Well, God, you're not doing this, God, you're not doing that. You said you're gonna do this, you're not doing it. But David did not complain about God. He complained to God. But he began to pray. And he began to remembering that, you know, God, you delivered my fathers. And then God, you delivered me from the lion's den. And then after he realized that, he began to worship his way all the way down to verse 24, regardless of the agony, regardless of what was taking place, he worshiped his way down to verse 24.

Jesus Prays Psalm 22 On The Cross

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And I can't leave this psalm without telling you who else prayed it. The one who prayed it from a cross. Because a thousand years after David wrote this, there was a man hanging on a cross outside Jerusalem. And in Matthew 27, verse 46, records that he cried out with a loud voice, My God, my God, why have ye forsaken me? See, Jesus took Psalms 22 into his mouth in his darkest hour. And here's what you need to understand about how that worked in that culture. When a rabbi quoted the first line of the Psalms, he was invoking the whole psalm, not just the first verse. He was invoking the whole psalm. Every Jew standing at that cross knew where Psalms 22 ends. And it didn't end in abandonment in abandonment, did it? But in vindication. Verse 31 says, He has done this, and some translations rendered it, it is finished. Oh my goodness, hallelujah. Even the Son of God, in the loudest silence heaven ever held, was standing on a Psalms that ends in a praise. So if Jesus Himself walked through a moment where the Father felt silent and came out the other side in resurrection, oh hallelujah, then your dry season is not a disqualification from intimacy with God. It's a Psalms 22, and you may be in verse 1 right now, but I can tell you, verse 24 is Is already written with you in mind. See, David didn't wait for the silence to break before he worshiped. His worship is what broke the silence.

Why God Might Be Silent

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And I want to get practical about what that looks like on a Tuesday morning when you don't feel a thing. When you have been through it on a Monday, and all of a sudden it feels like it broke free. And then Tuesday morning is all back again. Doesn't mean you stop. Does it mean you just say, Well, God, it didn't work the first time. Why should I keep doing it? See, I want to offer you something that I've heard, not just theologically, but experimentally. Sometimes God is silent because he's working. He's not absent. He's working. When God's preparing something in you or for you that requires deep roots, he often gets quiet so that you'll push deeper. A tree that is never stressed doesn't develop a deep root system. The roots go deep when the tree has to reach for water. The silence is sometimes God making you reach. Sometimes the silence is God wanting you to reach for it because he knows us, right? He knows that we're easily give up. But we got to remember that God is working all things for our good. Just because we don't see it doesn't mean he's not working. He just wants us to reach for it. Sometimes God is silent because he is waiting. He's already spoken it. He gave you a promise. And the silence isn't him saying something new. It's him saying, trust what I already said. Stop looking for a fresh word when you haven't acted on the last one. Man, does that hit me in the stomach? Or I imagine it hits a lot of people. But how many times have God promised us something and told us, gave us a word from a prophet or somebody, or even from reading his word, he gave us a word that he was going to do it. And then the next ref and said, God, I need this. God, you're not, you've not acted on what you said you're going to do. I mean, we're kind of, you know, shooting ourselves in the foot here. He's already gave it to us. And then when it was given to us, did we not believe that it was ours? Did we not have faith in God that it was ours? Hmm. Think about that. So stop looking for a fresh word when we haven't acted on the last one he gave us. See, sometimes God is silent because intimacy doesn't always require words. Think about someone you've been with for a long time. A close friend, a spouse, a parent. There are moments when you sit in the same room in complete silence in the relationship and it's not broken. It's actually deep, comfortable, safe. The silence is itself a form of communion. God doesn't always have to speak for his presence to be real. And one of the marks of mature faith is learning to be with him in the quiet without demanding that he perform. Amen. Don't ignore that. Sometimes the silence has a purpose, and sometimes the silence has an address. Sometimes God is quiet because there's something in the way, not to punish you by no means, but to get your attention. And the way through that kind of silence is not endurance, it's honesty. Just tell him what's there. I mean, he's God, he already knows. He's just waiting for you to confess it because he cannot do anything to it with it until you confess that it's there. Then he can do something. For everybody else, for the people who have been walking clean and seeking hard and still hearing nothing, I want to say this as clearly as I can. Hold on. The silence will break. In the waiting. I want to bring this to a close.

The Challenge For Your Next Dry Day

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I want to come down to a lower level and offer you a challenge today. I always like to end my podcast in a challenge, give you something to work for, to build your faith, get you deeper in the word and deeper in God and get those roots deeper, deeper. And let you keep reaching. Wherever you are today, whether God feels close or feels silence, I I want to give you the same challenge. Don't interrupt the silence. Don't let the quiet become a verdict. Don't fill the silence with your own conclusions about who you are to God or what God thinks about you. Because the silence is not the verdict. The cross is the verdict. And the cross says, You are loved, you are wanted, and he's not done with you yet. See, David said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And Jesus said those same words from the cross. Which means He knows what it feels like to feel forsaken and not be forsaken. He knows what it feels like when the silence is so deafening and the Father feels absence. He's been there. And he came out the other side. You remember that? This week, don't stop if it feels like your prayers are healing and ceiling. Keep praying. If worship feels dry, keep worshiping. If scripture feels flat, keep reading. Not because the spiritual disciplines are magic, but because you are staying in the room. You are saying to God, God, I am not leaving. I don't feel you right now, but I know you're here, and I'm not going anywhere. This is faith. And faith, exercise in the silence, becomes the strongest faith there is. Amen. Episode four. Four episodes in to closer than you think. And I hope today met you somewhere real. I hope you received something from this podcast today.

Share, Stay Connected, Final Encouragement

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And if you know somebody who is in a dry season right now, who's struggling to feel God or hear God or believe that God is still there, share this episode with them. It might be exactly what they need to hear today. They might need something that you just heard to lift their spirits, to lift them out of their dry season. Next week, we land the series with episode five. Living from the presence, not for it. Did you get that? Living for the presence, not for it. We've been building to this. You're not going to miss this final episode. Guys, until next week, follow us on Facebook and on YouTube. We also have an app where you can listen to all the podcasts on the go. You can, I would love to hear from you also. You can email me at the Christian Cafe2022 at gmail.com. Let me know what God is doing in your life. If you have any prayer requests, I'd love to pray for you. We're here for you. We want God to bless you. We want God to be that person in your life you can always turn to. And if there's anything we can do to help you pray and help you get through it, that's what we're here for. Until next time, we'll see you at the table. And remember, the silence is not the end of the story.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Hold on. Welcome to the Christian Cafe, the place where the bread of life is always served hot and fresh, straight from God's word. Every episode is designed to nourish your soul, strengthen your faith, and encourage you in your daily walk with Christ. At the Christian Cafe, you'll find practical teaching, encouragement from the scriptures, and spiritual insights that you can apply right where you are. Whether you're at home, at work, or on the go, this is your place to pause, be refreshed, and be reminded of God's goodness. Stay connected by following us on Facebook at the Christian Cafe and send your prayer requests to the Christian Cafe 2022 at gmail.com. Because here at the cafe, we believe in the power of prayer and the fellowship of believers. Join us next time, right here on the Christian Cafe and see what God is serving up fresh for you.