Saturday... Silence can get our attention?

Asaph, the writer of Psalm 83 (NLT) starts this Psalm by saying, "O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God." The MESSAGE Paraphrase put it this way, "God, don't shut me out, don't give me the silent treatment, O God." God had something that He needed His people to get desperate about. He needed them to come to Him.

Getting the silent treatment from someone gets our attention. doesn't it? What is it in your life that you have ignored but you have finally realized that you need to do something about it?

Silence can do that, can't it? We get so complacent until we see there is a problem. Maybe it's in your family? Maybe all you do is work and you've ignored your relationship with your spouse or with your kids but the silent treatment has gotten your attention and you are starting to see there is a problem that you need to deal with. And the problem is you.

We do that with God too many times. We don't spend any time in His Word or in prayer. We take His relationship for granted. His silence in time of need shows us that we really need Him and in desperation we come to Him. Finally we see there is a problem and we need Him.

The key is, He is always there. We just need to come to Him, to reach out to Him.

Verses 1- 3 in the NIRV says, "God, don't remain silent. Don't refuse to listen. Do something, God. See how your enemies are growling like dogs. See how they are rising up against you. They make clever plans against your people. They make evil plans against those you love." Oh, He knows that but His silence gets our attention about what we have accepted as the norm. And He wants us in the time that we are living to get disturbed at what is happening all around us.

Asaph ends this Psalm in verse 18 by saying, "May you, the Lord, let your enemies know who you are. You alone are the Most High God over the whole earth." And as His followers we need to wake up and see this fact also. Oh, God wake us up to the problems around us and may we quit being complacent and get really desperate! Your silence can wake us up. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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