One of the comments I got on last week’s post was that we often don’t wait to hear God speak after we ask our questions. Since the source of that comment was one of my *missionary aunts, I suspect that many of us are guilty of that failure to wait. It’s certainly true of me on occasion.

So let’s take a look back at Habakkuk for moment. At the end of his second complaint, he says, “I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint” (Habakkuk 2:1 ESV). This is a very deliberate waiting for God to respond beyond simple patience, a deliberate seeking for God’s response. However, it is not a searching out, not a wandering about looking for the answer. Habakkuk is actively watching, but still waiting for God to come to him in His own time.

I don’t know about you, but that convicts me. I have a tendency to talk to God but then go look for answers. Depending on where I’m looking, that’s not always a bad thing. Reading the Bible or conversing with mature Christian friends can be a means for God to respond, since God certainly uses both of those sources to speak to His people. But even those wise and good actions can be an avoidance of truly waiting and watching. And some of the other ways I look for answers are not so wise. We are called to “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10a ESV). Elijah’s answer came not in the strong wind or in the earthquake or in the fire but in the “still small voice” (I Kings 19:12 RSV). God often speaks in ways that we won’t hear if we don’t stop and listen.

I find that I’m not very good at the being still and waiting in silence for God’s voice. Besides the people around and the tendency to leave the TV running as well as a tendency to interact with a computer of description most of the time, I have deliberately developed a habit of reading at any point when I have spare time. Putting down the Kindle and  tablet and phone, closing the laptop, turning off the TV, and deliberately waiting and watching for God to speak is not always an easy thing. At first, I tend to feel unproductive and even vaguely guilty. But I can say that it is worthwhile to take some time to truly be still and wait and watch for God’s voice. There is peace to be found in that stillness, and sometimes there are answers that come in that moment.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have questions that I suspect will be with me until heaven. Typical questions of that sort, I think. Questions about death and illness and other unexpected life change that feels the opposite of good. God doesn’t give us answers for everything; otherwise, what is faith for? But He does respond, and He does offer peace. But we have to believe, ask, and then stop and listen.

*People who grow up with parents who are overseas missionaries (as I did) are taught to refer to other missionaries as aunts and uncles. So we end up with huge extended missionary families. This is, in my view, one of the big reasons for Facebook: staying connected with my extended family, both missionary and actual relations. Reconnecting with my high school classmates who are scatted across the globe, as we were before high school in Jakarta, is also a positive.