God On Mute Quotes

The revelation of God's love - the tears in His eyes - may not solve any of our intellectual questions about why He leaves a particular prayer unanswered. (In many ways, the sight of those tears makes His unresponsiveness even harder to comprehend.) But it does touch an emotional need within us that is perhaps even deeper than the intellectual one: the need to know that what we are going through and the way that we are feeling matters; the need to know that our requests have been heard; the need to know that God - in whom we have placed all our hope - is near and He truly cares.

When my deep prayers don't work, I easily default to despair, anger or doubt. Although I believe that God can handle my hang-ups, the truth is that there is only temporary comfort in anger and no hope whatsoever in doubt.

God's voice can so easily be muted by our hurt, our self-hatred or our crazy preconceptions about Who he really is, how He speaks and what we think He will say.

Mark's gospel account of the Garden of Gethsemane event tells us that Jesus used the word Abba to talk to His Father. This is the only time in which Jesus addresses Yahweh as "Abba" (Daddy), and He is doing it at the time of His greatest vulnerability.

first there is
prayer
and where there is prayer there may be
miracles
but where miracles may not be there are
questions
and where there are questions there may be
silence
but silence may be more than
absence silence may be
presence muted
silence may not be
nothing
but something to
explore
defy
accuse
engage
and this is
prayer
and where there is prayer there may yet be
miracles...