Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. — Isaiah 45:15
I once met someone who seemed like they never stopped working. Late into the evening. Early in the morning. Whenever I crossed paths with them there was something being done, something being built, something being prepared. And there were many times I was completely unaware of what they were doing. I would not see them for a stretch and assume things had slowed down. Then the results would appear. Finished, polished, further along than I had imagined. The work had been happening the entire time. I simply had not been close enough to see it.
God works the same way. Isaiah makes one of the most striking declarations in all of Scripture when he calls God a God who hides Himself. It sounds almost like a complaint. And yet Isaiah immediately follows it with the word Saviour. The God who hides Himself is the same God who saves. His hiddenness is not abandonment. It is not inactivity. It is simply the reality that God often does His most significant work in places and ways we cannot observe from where we are standing.
There are seasons in the life of every believer that feel like silence. Prayers that seem to go unanswered. Circumstances that refuse to shift. The unmistakable sense that nothing is happening when everything inside us is crying out for movement. And in those seasons the temptation is to conclude that God has stepped back, that He is waiting, or worse, that He is indifferent.
But Scripture will not allow that conclusion. The God of the Bible is never passive. He is never idle. He is never caught off guard by the circumstances that have left us confused and waiting. He is working in the hidden places, behind the scenes, beneath the surface, in the details we cannot access and the conversations we are not part of and the moments we will only understand later when the full picture finally comes into view.
The person I described never announced what they were doing. They did not provide progress reports or ask for recognition. They simply worked. And the results eventually spoke for everything that had been happening in the quiet.
That is a picture of how God often operates in our lives.
The silence you are in right now may not be a pause in God’s activity. It may be the most active season He has had on your behalf, and you simply do not have the vantage point yet to see it. The breakthrough that eventually arrives will reveal that something was being prepared long before the moment it appeared.
Do not mistake the hiddenness of God for the absence of God. He is working. Even now. Especially now. The results will speak for everything that has been happening in the quiet.
God’s silence is not His stillness. He is always working. You just cannot always see it from where you are standing.
Sometimes the most meaningful encouragement comes from hearing how God is meeting people in ordinary moments.
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About Another Well Ministries
Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
To learn more about the heart of the ministry or explore additional resources, visit anotherwell.org.
