Silence is Golden?

Ariel posted this, "Inaudible Answers to Prayer" in which he quotes the following from Oswald Chambers:

"If God is taking us into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, He will give us the first sign of His intimacy—silence. The devil calls it unanswered prayer."

Ariel has posted a Blogger Limelight challenge to respond to this quote. He asks:

"What do you make of Chambers' statement? Do you violently disagree? Or does his assertion contain some truth? If so, how much—a few grains, or a whole sackful? At the bottom of this is the question of what we actually should expect, experientially, when we pray to God the Father."

(God, I love cut and paste... thank you Andy for typing up this first part... saved me a lot of time... ;)

I think this whole assertion rests on the very first part of that statement. IF GOD IS TAKING US INTO THE UNDERSTANDING THAT PRAYER IS FOR THE GLORIFYING OF HIS FATHER... Okay, maybe I missed that message somewhere. Or maybe God and I aren't that intimate. I don't recognize that understanding yet. Prayer, I think, can take many different forms. It can be spoken aloud - publicly, and en masse. It can be intimate - spoken in a quiet moment when no one else is around. It can be a feeling - a communion between your soul and the soul of God that doesn't even require words. It can be done in song, or poem, or chant. Sometimes it is used to thank God for the many blessings we have achieved. Sometimes it is to ask God for His help or His understanding. Sometimes, and let's be honest, its to ask God, why? And sometimes, it is to praise God. In a sort of metaphysical sense, to pray is to glorify God by recognizing that He is your sovereign Lord and savior and that He is the one you need to approach with your heart, mind, and soul. But the act of prayer, itself, is not always meant as a glorification of the Lord Most High.

As to the second part of this phrase, that He will answer us with the intimacy of silence, my first and honest response to this is... Poppycock! It'd be some answer to anyone's innocent question about whether God hears our prayers if we were to answer, "If you're doing it right, God will answer you with silence." And if we're doing it wrong? "You'll hear nothing." Uh... isn't that the same answer? The better way of phrasing this, I think, is to say that if you are still and calm and silent, you will hear God's answer, though probably not audibly. In other words, His silence speaks volumes.

And yes, the Devil would want people to think that not hearing a voice from the clouds that sounds like James Earl Jones means that God's not listening and not answering us, I doubt that the Devil would have to work that hard if we told new parishioners that God answers us with silence. The Non-Believer in us would naturally say, "Riiiight," and walk away slowly.

Prayer is a deep and personal thing. It is our communion with God. It is our chance to talk through our own troubles with God an active listener. But its kind of like sending snail mail to someone to clarify something that you already sent via e-mail. God already knows what you want to say and has already answered your question before you've even asked it. I find most often that the act of prayer itself is the answer to the question I haven't yet asked. If I am troubled about a relationship and I go to ask God what I should I do about it, I will usually find my answer to the question while I am asking God for His answer and I'll just suddenly know what the answer is. You can't tell me that God's answer is silence. I know from personal experience.