Forsaken or Forsaking
When God Seems Silent: Persevering in Faith When Answers Do Not Come
Silence can feel like abandonment, especially when prayers seem unanswered, reconciliation never comes, or a difficult season stretches longer than expected. In this message, Dr. Perry Greene explains why God may seem silent, how Scripture speaks to the pain of feeling forsaken, and why faithful perseverance matters when God’s work is hidden from view.
Dr. Perry Greene begins with the painful story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who married Robert Browning when she was 41. Her father disowned her because he did not want his children to leave home and, according to Dr. Greene’s account, sought to erase every trace of his daughter. Elizabeth and Robert moved to Italy, and for years she continued writing to her father. She wrote hundreds of letters expressing love and longing for reconciliation. He never answered.
That story gives human shape to one of the deepest wounds a person can experience: reaching out with love and receiving only silence in return. Dr. Greene uses it to help listeners consider the ache of unanswered reconciliation and the emotional weight of feeling forsaken. Many people know some version of that pain. A letter goes unanswered. A relationship remains broken. A prayer seems unheard. A crisis continues without visible relief.
From there, Dr. Greene turns to the cross. As Jesus was crucified, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Dr. Greene explains that observant Israelites would have recognized those words as the opening of Psalm 22. In his framing, the crucifixion was not random suffering; it was the visible fulfillment of Scripture. Psalm 22 described horrific suffering, and those standing nearby were watching it unfold before them.
Dr. Greene also points to Isaiah 53:12, where Isaiah declares that the servant “bore the sin of many.” He then connects that prophetic picture to 1 Peter 2:24, where Peter writes that Christ bore sins in His body on the tree so that believers might die to sin and live to righteousness. For Dr. Greene, this matters because Jesus experienced the separation from God that sinners deserve by taking away sin. The cry of forsakenness was not merely emotional language; it was tied to the weight of sin, sacrifice, and redemption.
Dr. Greene then asks what David may have had in mind when he wrote of God forsaking him. David’s words were prophetic regarding the crucifixion, but Dr. Greene also notes that David himself must have felt abandoned at times. That observation is important because Scripture does not treat human anguish as imaginary. God’s people can feel alone, overwhelmed, confused, and forgotten, even while God’s promises remain true.
Against that feeling, Dr. Greene places God’s promise to remain with His people. He references Deuteronomy 31:8, where Moses tells the Hebrews that the Lord goes before them, will be with them, and will not leave or forsake them. He also notes that the New Testament reiterates this promise in Hebrews 13:5. The biblical witness does not deny that people sometimes feel forsaken. Instead, it anchors them in the truth that God’s presence is not measured only by what they feel in the moment.
At the same time, Dr. Greene does not reduce every experience of silence to one explanation. He states plainly that he does not claim to know all the answers. Still, he identifies one serious possibility: when people forsake God, they create distance from Him. Isaiah 59:1-2 reminds readers that the Lord’s hand is not too short to save and His ear is not too dull to hear, but sin can make separation between people and God. In that case, silence is not caused by God’s weakness or inability. It is connected to human rebellion, iniquity, and refusal to walk rightly before Him.
Dr. Greene applies that principle both personally and nationally. He notes that many American forefathers understood national success as dependent on God rather than human effort alone. He quotes Thomas Jefferson’s reminder that God gave life and liberty, and that a nation’s liberties cannot be secure once it removes the conviction that those liberties are gifts from God. In Dr. Greene’s argument, there are times when God’s silence may call people, families, churches, and nations to self-examination.
That kind of self-examination should not become shallow blame or panic. Dr. Greene’s point is more careful than that. He is not saying every hard season has one obvious cause. He is saying that when God seems silent, one proper response is to ask whether there is sin, pride, neglect, or national arrogance creating distance from Him. The silence may be corrective. It may expose what comfort, prosperity, noise, or self-reliance has hidden.
But Dr. Greene also identifies another possibility: sometimes God is at work in the silence. He compares that hidden work to leaven in dough or a plant emerging from the earth. Before the change is visible, something real may already be happening beneath the surface. He points to the book of Esther, where God is never mentioned by name, yet His hand can be seen throughout the story. He also references Isaiah 45:15, which describes God as one who hides Himself, the God of Israel and Savior.
That observation offers a different way to understand silence. Silence is not always absence. Hiddenness is not always abandonment. A person may be dealing with a harsh personal issue and wonder where the Lord is in the struggle. According to Dr. Greene, God’s hand may not be obvious until the trial has passed. What feels unanswered in the present may later be seen as a season in which God was sustaining, correcting, preparing, or deepening His people.
Dr. Greene says God can use silence for a person’s benefit. He describes it as a tool God can use to deepen His people, and he points to Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am the Lord.” Stillness is not passivity. In the context of Dr. Greene’s message, it is a spiritually disciplined posture that resists panic, noise, and constant reaction long enough to pay attention to God.
He then names several potential benefits of silence. First, silence builds reflection, where people learn to think rather than merely react. This matters because many difficult seasons expose how quickly a person moves from pain to anger, fear, accusation, distraction, or despair. Reflection creates space to ask better questions. What is God showing? What has been neglected? What needs to be confessed? What truth has been forgotten?
Second, silence develops self-control so that people do not constantly need stimulation. In a noisy culture, discomfort often sends people searching for immediate relief. Silence can feel threatening because it removes the usual distractions. Dr. Greene presents silence as a place where self-control can grow, because the soul learns not to be ruled by every impulse, every fear, or every demand for quick emotional escape.
Third, silence sharpens awareness. People learn to observe, listen, and discern. This is especially important in seasons where God’s work is not obvious. Discernment requires attention. It requires noticing patterns, motives, temptations, and providential details that may otherwise be missed. Dr. Greene’s reference to Esther fits here. God may not be named in every moment, but His hand can still be traced through the larger story.
Fourth, silence strengthens the inner life, where conscience and conviction grow. Dr. Greene presents wilderness seasons not merely as empty hardship but as places where God forms His people. The silence may challenge pride and insecurity. It may uncover a person’s dependence on approval, visible results, emotional comfort, or control. Yet that exposure is not meant for destruction. It is part of God’s refining work.
Dr. Greene compares the process to a coach pushing players to improve their skills. The process is not pleasant, but it is useful. That comparison helps clarify the difference between abandonment and formation. A coach who pushes an athlete is not absent from the process. The pressure is part of training. In the same way, Dr. Greene argues that during wilderness times of silence and discernment, God has not abandoned His people, even when they may feel that He has.
This leads to the key response: faithful perseverance. Dr. Greene turns to Romans 5:3-5, where Paul writes that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Hope does not put believers to shame because God’s love has been poured into their hearts through the Holy Spirit. In Dr. Greene’s message, perseverance is not stubborn optimism. It is faith that remains with the Lord when His work is not yet visible.
For daily life, that means a person walking through silence should not rush to assume God is gone. The first response should be honest examination before God. Is there sin creating distance? Is there disobedience being excused? Is there pride, resentment, or self-reliance that needs to be brought into the light? Isaiah 59 makes that question necessary, not optional.
It also means a person should resist the urge to interpret hiddenness as abandonment. The book of Esther reminds readers that God’s name may not appear on every page of a painful season, while His providence is still present in the larger story. A person may not see the root system forming under the soil, but that does not mean nothing is growing.
Dr. Greene’s message also invites a more disciplined relationship with silence. Instead of filling every quiet moment with distraction, God’s people can use silence for reflection, self-control, awareness, and conviction. That may include prayer, confession, Scripture meditation, journaling, repentance, or simply sitting before the Lord with Psalm 46:10 in view: “Be still and know that I am the Lord.”
The final encouragement is not complicated, but it is demanding. Dr. Greene urges listeners to persevere and not forsake the Lord. The feeling of silence may be real. The trial may be harsh. The answer may not yet be visible. But the call remains: do not give up, do not give in, and do not give out. Faith keeps the light burning when God seems silent.
TL;DR
Dr. Perry Greene uses Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s unanswered letters to illustrate the pain of longing for reconciliation and receiving silence.
Jesus’ cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” points back to Psalm 22 and the fulfillment of Scripture.
Dr. Greene connects the cross to Isaiah 53:12 and 1 Peter 2:24, emphasizing that Jesus bore sin and experienced the separation sinners deserve.
God promises not to leave or forsake His people, as seen in Deuteronomy 31:8 and Hebrews 13:5.
Sometimes silence may expose distance created by sin, pride, rebellion, or national disregard for God.
Sometimes God is working quietly in the silence, as seen in the hidden providence of Esther.
Silence can build reflection, self-control, awareness, discernment, conscience, and conviction.
Wilderness seasons may feel unpleasant, but Dr. Greene presents them as part of God’s forming work.
Romans 5:3-5 shows that suffering can produce endurance, character, and hope.
The practical response is faithful perseverance: do not give up, do not give in, and do not give out.
Discussion + Reflection Section
Discussion Questions
How does the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning help explain the emotional pain of unanswered reconciliation?
Why does Dr. Greene connect Jesus’ cry from the cross to Psalm 22, Isaiah 53:12, and 1 Peter 2:24?
What is the difference between silence caused by human distance from God and silence where God is quietly at work?
Where might personal, family, church, or national self-examination be needed when God seems silent?
How does Romans 5:3-5 help believers understand suffering, endurance, character, and hope?
Apply It This Week
Spend ten quiet minutes with Psalm 46:10, asking God to teach stillness instead of reaction.
Examine one area where sin, pride, resentment, or self-reliance may be creating distance from God.
Write down one difficult situation where God’s hand may not yet be obvious, and pray for endurance to remain faithful.
Practice one form of silence this week by turning off unnecessary noise and using that time for reflection, confession, or Scripture meditation.
Memorize or reread Romans 5:3-5 as a reminder that suffering can produce endurance, character, and hope.
Prayer Prompt
Lord, when silence feels heavy, teach those who are struggling to be still and know that You are God. Search hearts, correct what separates people from You, and use suffering to produce endurance, character, and hope through the Holy Spirit. Amen.