“Surely You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.”  (Isaiah 45:15)

“The very fact that the church has continued on this earth for nearly two thousand years is the result of the working of Him who is a God who hides himself. It is often true that the greater the display accompanying any work, the less the divine content; and the more silent the work and the less our awareness of it, the greater the divine content. Since all the work we do is done unto Him who hides Himself, it must be based on faith, not on sight. [2 Cor. 5:7]

I trust these words will help some of us to realize that when we are most conscious of impotence, God is often most powerfully present. Don’t look for greater things. Don’t look for things other than they are. Don’t set your expectation on some great vision or on some great experience. And don’t expect anything outward, for the God who hides himself is at work within your life, and He is working mightily. Your responsibility is to cooperate with Him by responding to His voice within — that ‘still small voice,’ that voice that seems so much a part of your own feelings that you scarcely recognize it as a voice at all. To that voice, registered in the deepest depths of your being, you must say, ‘Amen,’ for there, secretly and ceaselessly, the God who hides himself is working.”

(A God Who Hides Himself, Chapter 1, Section 6)