God is in the whisper

So I'm sure if you have been a believer for a while, you have asked the question, "why don't I hear God?" Your not alone in asking this question. I have asked it myself, as sometimes it is very frustrating that God does not talk audibly. However, our go to verse when thinking about the voice of God is 1 Kings 19:11. Elijah goes up on a mountain and is looking for the Lord because he is going to pass by. Now I think that this verse has been misinterpreted over the years. Elijah goes on the mountain because the Lord is going to "pass by". Yet, in our interpretation of it, our end result is hearing the voice of the Lord. Now these two could be related but just wait and bear with me. So Elijah goes onto the mountain to wait for the Lord to pass by. While on the mountain there is a wind, "but the Lord was not in the wind". Now this refrain is repeated three times with and earthquake, fire, and the previously mentioned wind. "But the Lord was not in the ____". After this "a sound of sheer silence". Now first off, this doesn't make any sense, because the sound of silence is contradictory, yet somehow Elijah 'heard' the silence. See we end here in a sense, because well Elijah hears the silence and then the voice speaks to him so God must have been in the silence right? Well, yes but I would ask you to think outside of the christianese box that has been given to you. Work outside the teaching that you have been given for a moment. Yes, God is in the silence, why? Because that refrain earlier is not repeated. Yet, there is mroe going on. Elijah hears a silence, and then there comes a voice to him. Even if it is not a silence, if your translation says a whisper or a gentle blowing, it is always followed by a 'then a voice'. They are related and yet they are not. While God may be in the silence, or the gentle whisper or the blowing, that is not his voice. He speaks after Elijah hears it. God seems to be testing Elijah. The wind comes and God seems to be asking 'where are you looking for me Elijah'? Then the earthquake and God keeps on seeing if Elijah will stay, showing that he does not believe that the Lord has passed. Then the fire, and Elijah still stays. you see because if the Lord was in any of those, Elijah would have had no reason to remain where he was. What reason is there to stay after the Lord has passed? So Elijah's remaining there shows that he does not really believe the Lord has passed by yet. He passes God's test. Then, God comes in the silence that follows, Elijah responds, and then God speaks. You see it seems to be just as much about God seeing where Elijah is looking for him as where God actually is. It is the same for us today. Are we looking for God in the earthquake events of life, where everything is huge and on a grand scale? Are we looking for God in the winds when we are blown about and life is not going as we want? Are we looking for God in the fires when the heat is on and you don't know what to do? And are we really looking for God in the silence? I'll ask again, are we really looking for God in the silence? Those other areas are where it's easy to look for God. You can see the result of God's work in them, and you can see the effect of God in them. Yet, God wants us to look for him in the silence. when the pressure is off, when you have that time of rest, when you have no other things that need to get done. When you are going to relax and have down-time. Is that when you look for him? Maybe we should start...