If you follow Jesus for any length of time, you'll eventually come to a point when God seems silent and absent, when you have to ask, Is God hidden? And why don't I hear from Him? Job wrestled with these questions in Job 23 and learned about two things: God's activity and what our attitude toward His activity should be.

First, when it comes to God's activity, He's not always apparent. Job voiced this better than anyone I've ever read--just read verses 1-9. Unable to sense or perceive God, he cried out for fellowship with God. That's the problem with the invisible nature of God: How do you have a personal relationship with a person you don't actually see? That's especially difficult for somebody who's suffering and questioning God.

But though God is not always apparent, He's always aware: "He knows the way that I take" (v. 10). Just knowing that God was aware could sustain Job through this fiery furnace of a trial. "I don't know where God is, but God knows where I am, and that's all that matters."

Not only that, but God is also always at work. Even though Job couldn't see God, he knew He was working in him: "When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold" (v. 10). This has been a sustaining truth for me for years, because it tells me that God isn't just chilling out in heaven--He's actually using the bad experiences to work something in me. Job saw the furnace he was in as a divine appointment, because behind the furnace was a divine goldsmith who put him there to purify him (see 1 Peter 1:6-7).

That's God's activity, but what does it take for you to have the right attitude about it? Number one, it takes the pursuit of God's will. As Job said in verse 11, "My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside" (see also James 5:11). In other words, whether God strokes you with blessings or strikes you with blows, follow His will for your life.

Having the right attitude also takes a passion for God's Word: "I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (v. 12). This is one of my all-time favorite verses in the Bible. Job was on a bed of pain, but he rested his soul on the soft pillow of God's transforming truth.

So where's God? Even when you can't see Him, He's there. Even when you can't hear Him, He's there. Invisible does not mean unavailable. God knows where you're at, and He's working in the midst of it. So hold on, submit to His will, be nourished by the Word, and watch what great fruit will come out of it.