By Benescke Janse van Rensburg

A Verse a Day reader recently wrote: “I am going through a season in my life where it feels as if my prayers hit the ceiling. I ask God questions, but He remains silent. Please help.” Have you ever had such a season?

CS Lewis, the 20th century professor of Literature at Oxford and Cambridge universities, experienced such a season. He married the woman of his dreams at a late age. They were briefly married when she was diagnosed with cancer and died not long after. In the fifties, little could be done to help her.

After years as a cynical agnostic, CS Lewis came to salvation and became well known worldwide for his books on Christian practice.

The loss of his wife rocked his world. In his book, A Grief Observed, CS Lewis writes about his bitter heartache, longing, pain and unanswered questions. Among other things, he writes something about the believer's experience of “the silence of God” despite urgent questions and prayer: “When I bring my questions before God, I get no audible answer. Yet it is a very special kind of silence on his part. His "no answer" is not like a closed door. It's more like a quiet, caring way God looks at me. It's as if He's shaking his head, but not refusing; rather as if he were saying to me, "Be quiet, my child, you do not understand."

Have you ever been to that place of “silence” where your own pain wanted to tear you apart? In Job 5:11 we read: “The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety." In Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” And in 1 Corinthians 13:12 we are reminded: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

Do we have all the answers? No. Sometimes we only have to put our faith in the One who does have the answers. It is He who also looks in our direction with understanding, caring eyes and hands ready to comfort us. Let's calm down and place our trust in Him once again, knowing that He sees the bigger picture. God bless.

Father God, thank you for being my Comforter. Please be close to me today. Relieve my heart's pain and quiet me and my grinding thoughts. I ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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