God's presence instead of answers

So, sometimes when I sit down to write these posts at odd hours, I wonder if that's really the best time to try and write cohesive thought on something. But, then I realize that this is when I do most of my thinking so maybe it's the time when my brain is working best. Then again, it may also be the time when I ramble the most . . . or I may be short and to the point. Who knows? Maybe it's just because I am a night person that it seems like blog ideas come to me in the wee hours of the morning. Anyways, that is not the purpose of writing this . . . on to why I started to write this blog . . .

I read a quote earlier today as part of some study that really just struck me:

Sometimes we don't realize how real God is until we've experienced the
awesomeness of His answerless presence. (Beth Moore)

There's some incredible depth there, and it's been something I've been thinking about all evening.

I wonder if the idea presented in it is somewhere you have been. I know it's somewhere I have been in the distant past and in the not-so-distant past. That place where we have hard questions about life and we go to God with them but, rather than getting the answer we are looking for, we experience God's presence in a way we haven't before or haven't in a while. We may not get the answer to our question, but we leave that time knowing without any doubt that God is real and that He is with us in the midst of whatever is causing us to ask those questions.

Sometimes in those times when we are asking the hard questions of life to God, we may feel like what we want is for God to somehow answer those questions - for Him to just explain the greater reasons for what happened, those things we cannot see. But, I think that sometimes God knows what we actually need is His presence, not His answers. We may be completely convinced we want answers - we want God to explain Himself to us. God knows better. He knows that in those times what we often need far more than answers is to know He is real and He is there.

We really just need to know He has not left us alone in the pain or sorrow that has brought on the questions. In those emotions we have convinced ourselves that if we could just get the answer from God about why He allowed it we would be satisfied. But, ultimately God knows that the answers will not satisfy us. The only thing that will satisfy us in the pain or sorrow is
knowing He is there and He is real.

Sometimes we don't realize how real God is until we've experienced the awesomeness of His answerless presence. (Beth Moore)