“Don’t say God is silent when your Bible is closed.”
I don’t know who said or shared it first, but it’s clear this simple statement resonates with many, at least it has with me. These 10 words rebuke our fear that God might be inactive or uncaring in the brokenness and messiness of our lives, and reminds us that he cares, he sees and he speaks. But too often, we’re just not listening.
God is always ready to speak into our lives. We simply need to listen, tuning our ears and hearts to what he is saying in the book he inspired. When we open the Bible, we find more than 750,000 words breathed out by God himself for us.
God Is Always Speaking
Charles Spurgeon said, “No one ever outgrows the Scriptures. The Book widens and deepens with our years.” In my 33 years so far on this earth, I have consistently experienced the Bible’s ability to speak the right word, at the right time. My late grandfather-in-law, who spent his life as a pastor, testified to the same: God’s word continued to be fresh, and continued to speak in new ways, even though he’d read the same passage countless times over decades.
A.W. Tozer said, “The Bible is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.” God wants to speak to us today, and every day, through his word. God’s word is not simply “once spoken.” God’s word is always “now speaking.”
We silence the sound of God’s voice in our lives when we leave our Bible on the shelf. Many have shared another popular statement: “Complaining about God being silent when your Bible is closed is like complaining about not getting texts when your phone is turned off.”
