There are moments in the Christian life when God feels quiet. Prayers are prayed, plans are made, tears are shed, and yet heaven seems still. As the new year begins, we often carry a mixture of hope and uncertainty from the old year into the new one. We set goals, write vision lists, make resolutions, and ask God to bless what lies ahead. Yet beneath all that optimism, many of us quietly wonder: What if God is silent again? What if things still don’t make sense? What if this year feels no better than the last one?

The truth is, silence does not mean absence. God’s quiet seasons are not signs of neglect, but often invitations into deeper trust.

When God Is Quiet

Scripture is honest about seasons when God feels distant. David cried out, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1, KJV). This is not the prayer of an unbeliever, but of a man after God’s own heart. Silence can be deeply unsettling, especially when we are desperate for clarity or relief.

We live in a culture that values immediacy, instant answers, quick fixes, and visible progress. But God often works beneath the surface, in ways we cannot see or measure. Isaiah 55:8–9 reminds us, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.” When things don’t make sense, it may simply be because we are not meant to see the full picture yet.

As a new year begins, many of us ask God for direction: Which path? Which decision? Which door? Sometimes His answer is silence, and not to confuse us, but to teach us to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Trusting God in the Darkness

Darkness is where trust is either formed or abandoned. When answers are absent and emotions are heavy, faith becomes a choice rather than a feeling. Job understood this kind of faith when he declared, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job 13:15). Job did not trust God because life made sense; he trusted God because he believed God was still good.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Stillness is often forced upon us in silent seasons. We are stripped of control, certainty, and sometimes even comfort. Yet it is in this stillness that we learn who God truly is, not just what He can do for us.

God often does His deepest work in the dark. Seeds grow underground before they ever break the surface. Likewise, spiritual growth often happens in hidden, quiet places where no one is applauding, and no results are immediately visible.

A Missionary Who Walked Through Silence

One powerful example of trusting God in silence is the life of Adoniram Judson, an American missionary to Burma (modern-day Myanmar) in the early 1800s. Judson felt called by God to bring the gospel to a people who had never heard the name of Jesus. He left behind comfort, familiarity, and safety to obey that call.

For the first seven years of his ministry, Judson saw no converts. Seven years of preaching, translating Scripture, learning the language, enduring sickness, and yet nothing seemed to change. To make matters worse, he endured immense personal suffering. His wife Ann died after years of illness, followed by the death of several of his children. Later, Judson himself was imprisoned and tortured for months, often left in darkness and chains.

By all outward measures, it looked like God was silent.

Yet Judson refused to abandon his calling. He once wrote that the future was “as bright as the promises of God.” Eventually, after years of waiting and suffering, the spiritual breakthrough came. People began to believe. Churches were formed. By the time of his death, there were thousands of Burmese believers, and his Bible translation is still used today.

Judson never saw immediate fruit, but God was doing impossible things through his faithfulness. What looked like silence was actually preparation for a harvest far beyond his lifetime.

Trusting God With the Impossible

As we continue this journey into the new year, trusting God to do the impossible should always be on our list, and not because we are confident in outcomes, but because we are confident in Him. “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26). That promise does not come with a timeline or explanation, but it comes with certainty.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is not pretending everything is fine; it is believing God is faithful even when everything feels unclear.

Maybe you are entering this year with unanswered prayers, unresolved grief, or dreams that feel delayed. God’s silence does not mean He has forgotten you. Isaiah 30:18 assures us, “The Lord waits to be gracious unto you… blessed are all they that wait for Him.”

Waiting is not wasted time. It is sacred ground where trust is built.

Holding On When Nothing Makes Sense

If you find yourself in a quiet season, remember this: God is still working. Romans 8:28 does not say all things are good. It says God works through all things for good. Even silence. Even confusion. Even loss.

Trusting God in the darkness means anchoring your heart to His character, not your circumstances. It means believing that the same God who spoke light into existence is present even when you cannot see the light yet.

As this new year unfolds, may your trust deepen, not because life becomes clearer, but because God becomes greater. And may you hold fast to this promise: “The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him” (Lamentations 3:25).