Wrestling with the Silence: Does He Really Care?

The silence of God is one of the hardest things to bear — a silence that is not the absence of His presence, but the space where questions live. The kind of questions that don’t have easy answers, the ones that gnaw at the soul and make the heart feel as though it’s walking in a fog.

Does He really care?

In the midst of suffering — when you look around and see the weight of pain in the world, the brokenness, the cries of the hurting — it’s easy to wonder if God is distant, or worse, indifferent. It’s a question that has lingered in human hearts for centuries. The problem of suffering isn’t just intellectual; it’s visceral. It hurts. It feels.

We can reason through it: free will, the fall, the fallen world. We can remind ourselves that suffering is a part of the story, that it has a place in the greater mystery of life. But that doesn’t always ease the ache in our chest, the gnawing worry that maybe — just maybe — He isn’t listening. Or doesn’t care.

The Pain of Unanswered Prayers

And what about the prayers we’ve poured out, the ones that feel as though they’ve risen up and simply disappeared into the void? The prayers for healing, for clarity, for peace, for the world’s suffering to end — and yet, the silence remains. God feels distant, the heavens feel like brass, and all we are left with is waiting.

But what if that waiting isn’t empty? What if God’s silence in these moments isn’t a rejection, but an invitation to trust without seeing, to hope without knowing? We may never fully understand why some prayers go unanswered, or why some of our cries seem to echo without an immediate response, but in that space of waiting, we are stretched, refined, and shaped.

In the wrestling with that silence, something profound happens. We lean in, even when answers don’t come. We choose to stay in the tension. We choose to ask the hard questions, trusting that in our search, He meets us, even if we don’t hear His voice right away.

In that silence, He isn’t absent. He is there, waiting for us to speak, to ask, to wrestle, to long. Even in the unanswered prayer, He is present. Perhaps God’s silence isn’t a sign of His absence, but an invitation to seek Him deeper, to trust Him more.

Psalm 13:1-6 (NRSV)
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
and my enemy will say, ‘I have prevailed’;
my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

 😌💝