Why Prayer Still Matters in a World of Suffering: Wrestling with Faith, Healing, and the Silence of God

Voxology

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2017

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does prayer work in a world marked by injustice, trauma, and unanswered cries? Mike Erre and Andy tackle one of the hardest and most personal questions the Voxology community has ever wrestled with: Why do some prayers seem to be answered while others—especially those for safety and healing—go unanswered? Using an honest question from a listener as the foundation, this episode takes a deep dive into the complexities of prayer, God's sovereignty, the problem of evil, and what "answered prayer" truly means when held up against global suffering like Aleppo or the death of a child.

This isn't about quick solutions or spiritual platitudes. Mike and Andy explore why drawing straight lines between outcome and God's will often leads to distorted theology and wounded hearts. Instead, they argue for a richer, more biblically grounded approach that embraces mystery, laments with hope, and chooses trust even in the silence.

Key Takeaways: • The Role of Prayer in Partnership with God – Prayer isn't about control but influence, intimacy, and cooperation with a God who desires relationship, not puppets. • Why "It Must Be God's Will" is Harmful – Debunking this simplistic response with biblical texts that show other wills—human and demonic—are at work in the world. • Faith is Participation, Not Certainty – How the Bible presents faith as movement toward God, not psychological confidence, and why formulas around "enough faith" can be spiritually abusive. • The Power of "I Don't Know" – Why humility, not certainty, is the most Christ-like and pastoral response to suffering. • What Prayer Cultivates in Us – Prayer changes how we speak, see, and align ourselves with the heart of Jesus, even when we don't understand the outcomes.

Resources Mentioned: • The Book of Daniel, particularly Daniel 10 – Exploring the cosmic battle that interrupted answered prayer. • James 4:3 – On asking with the wrong motives. • Mark 9:24 – "I do believe; help my unbelief." • Bruce Almighty (2003) – Used for theological humor and metaphor around prayer and divine control. • The "Stages of Faith" and related previous episodes – Look for episodes around faith, doubt, and deconstruction.

Join us in embracing a deeper conversation on prayer—one that leads not to perfection or predictive theology, but to a more honest and sacred space of trust, action, and mystery. If this episode resonates with you, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and follow Voxology on your favorite platform to stay part of the journey.

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV

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Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

As always, we encourage and would love discussion as we pursue. Feel free to email in questions to hello@voxpodcast.com, and to engage the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.

We're on YouTube (if you're into that kinda thing): VOXOLOGY TV.

Our Merch Store! ETSY

Learn more about the Voxology Podcast

Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify

Support the Voxology Podcast on Patreon

The Voxology Spotify channel can be found here: Voxology Radio

Follow Mike on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikeerre

Music in this episode by Timothy John Stafford

Instagram & Twitter: @GoneTimothy

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Internet, Mike and Andy here, looking at my medal from the Spartan race.
0:18.0	It is a participation trophy for adults. It simply says Spartan race finisher.
0:24.5	But you know what? It means something. And it means that I survived. And a huge shout out goes to the rest of the team that drug my drug pushed, shoved my fat butt up an 11-foot wall and then there
0:43.8	was the muddy rope wall right was probably the most colossal for the rest of us well while you had
0:50.4	24 obstacles we had 25 yes I was the I was the 25th obstacle. Oh my goodness. So anyway,
0:58.1	thank you for that, Andy. You're fired. So, so hello everybody. It's January 2017. And we are so
1:08.1	grateful for you. So grateful to be a part of your life, so grateful that 73 of you are supporting us.
1:13.6	So grateful of you that many of you listen to actually both podcasts, the podcast at the community, Vox Community Podcast, and then this one.
1:21.9	And so as always, we are very privileged to do this today.
1:26.0	I want to take a question so so when we
1:29.7	gather together on Sundays one of the things we do is we try to answer questions
1:36.2	from the previous week so people text in their questions about what they're
1:40.3	hearing about what they're singing about what they're you know what they're
1:43.2	thinking and then the next week we answer them and I don't spend a lot of time at these I about what they're hearing, about what they're singing, about what they're, you know, what they're thinking.
1:49.1	And then the next week, we answer them. And I don't spend a lot of time at these. I just, I glance over them to, uh, you to just say, okay, let's do this one. Let's do this one. That's too long.
1:54.6	This one, you know, this, this one is not relevant to the whole rest of the community, whatever. So, but there have been a few that we've
2:01.6	said, oh, that needs to be a podcast. Yeah. So this is, this is the first one of those where a question
2:07.3	asked by someone in our community gets blown into a podcast because there's just no way to,
2:13.3	to do it justice in, you know, 30 seconds on a Sunday morning. So, this is our friend's question.
2:19.7	She says, I'm having a problem praying.
2:22.5	Since the election, I've been very frightened about the sort of country my child will
2:26.4	grow up in during the next four years.
	...

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