Why Does God Whisper?

I have written about quiet before (Shhhhh), there is nothing like quiet. Do you ever stop and listen to a breeze? I am a very outgoing type personality, so when I get quiet people think I am sick. When I am quiet, I am listening.

My husband and I relish in our time together when we are “quiet”. One time my daughter asked me if we were okay. I asked her what she meant. She said, “you and dad go to the beach together and he fishes or reads and you shell, but you never talk.” We talk. We just do it without words. Sometimes, we sit and read for hours, or we go to the beach and he fishes and I shell. I always look up and watch him reel in his fish. He looks out to watch me shell. If I get out of sight for too long he comes looking to check on me. We communicate without words, a lot. We have been married for 43+ years and we dated almost seven. We knew each other four years before we dated. That is 51 years of “talking”. Through the years we have grown close enough to not always need to “talk”. But, we talk, we communicate. We do not have to shout to each other, or constantly talk out loud. With some relationships, quiet IS conversation.

Our walk with the Lord is like that. God doesn’t yell to us or shout from Heaven. Most of what He tells us is in a whisper. Why?

There is a story of an old preacher who is visited by a young man in trouble. He tells the preacher he has prayed and prayed and God has not answered. The old preacher says something. But, the young man could not hear him, so he moved closer, “what did you say?” The preacher repeats it, and again the young man moves closer, “What? I cannot hear you.” One more time the old preacher repeats himself and the young man walks right up to him and asks him to repeat again. “God sometimes whispers,” he said, “so we will move closer to hear Him.”

My best conversations with GOD are when I say nothing at all.

1 Kings 19:11-13 (HCSB) “Then He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.”At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

James 1:19 (NASB) “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak…”