From Miracles To Mystery: How Faith Survived My Unanswered Prayers
A miraculous healing convinced him that God still works miracles. Years later, unanswered prayers forced him to wrestle with a harder question: Why does God intervene in some stories and remain silent in others? After witnessing both wonders and heartbreak, he discovered that faith isn't the absence of mystery. It's learning to trust God in the middle of it.
Gods, Creatures, and the One Who Simply Is
Most gods are just creatures with better costumes — stronger, stranger, louder versions of us. But the God who meets Moses in the burning bush is not one more being among beings. He is Being itself: the great I AM. The plagues are not party tricks, but judgments against lesser powers. Egypt worships creatures. Moses encounters the Creator — the One from whom all existence comes.
A Pot Without Handles
Suffering has a way of exposing the places we most want to hide — our weakness, dependence, fear, shame. We begin to believe we are burdens instead of beloved. But God does not look at us with disgust or disappointment. He sees us clearly and stays near anyway. Even the parts of ourselves we struggle to accept are not beyond his tenderness, his patience, or his ability to shape into something beautiful.
Treasures Hidden in the Dark
Some of God’s deepest work happens where we would never willingly go — inside loss, limitation, interruption, darkness. Yet again and again, suffering becomes a strange kind of workshop where he reshapes us with patience and precision. The treasure is rarely what we expected. Often, it is a steadier faith, a quieter strength, or a deeper dependence on him that could not have been formed any other way.
Questions in the Cemetery
Grief has a way of turning our questions into accusations. Who are you, God? What are you doing? But somewhere in the ache, the posture can shift — not from certainty, but from defiance to curiosity. The cross doesn’t explain everything, but it answers something deeper. God does not stand at a distance from our pain. He steps into it, holds it, and somehow, holds us too.
‘I Can Only Imagine 2’: One Of The Best Faith-Based Films Ever Made
The first “I Can Only Imagine” proved faith-based films could compete. The sequel does something harder: it grows up. Instead of promising that success or prayer erases suffering, it lingers in what comes after the dream. Bart Millard’s fame doesn’t shield his family from pain, and faith doesn’t tie everything up neatly. It offers presence, not escape — and that honesty gives the film surprising weight.
The Grace of Cold Water: Finding Comfort in Discomfort
Cold water has a strange kind of grace: it teaches us to meet discomfort without panic, to breathe instead of brace. Small, chosen stress can form resilience — body and soul — preparing us for heavier suffering we don’t get to schedule. In the chill, we practice surrender, learning that God is present not only in warmth and ease, but in the hard moments that deepen endurance and quietly grow fruit.
Suffering and the Providence of God
Providence isn’t a theory meant for armchairs — it’s the difference between living landlocked in fear and living anchored in hope.
I Know What I Need to Be Doing
Every January, I come back to three risky prayers — because they invite Jesus to disagree with my plans. When I finally asked with real openness, one word surfaced: with. Then a face: my 89-year-old dad. The invitation was simple — Friday lunch — and it reshaped my year. The third answer surprised me too: silence, walking my neighborhood with God.
A Profound Forgiveness
Amanda Knox spent years wrongly imprisoned in Italy, vilified by the press, and haunted by the loss of her friend. Yet in 2022, she sat across from the prosecutor she once blamed and said, “I do not think you are an evil person.” Forgiveness didn’t erase her anger or pain, but it reframed her story. Grace became possible where bitterness had every right to stay.
A Different Saint Film: ‘Triumph Of The Heart’
Most faith-based films avoid dwelling too long on real suffering, but “Triumph of the Heart” refuses to look away. The story of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom under the Nazis immerses viewers in hunger, brutality and despair — yet also reveals compassion and dignity stronger than oppression. Its beauty lies in showing that a Christian’s hope can outlast the world’s darkest will.
A God with Scars
When Sonya lost her dad, grief nearly swallowed her faith. But in the Gospels she noticed something — even after the resurrection, Jesus still carried scars. The marks of pain weren’t erased; they became part of the story. That realization steadied her: you can trust a God with scars. The Incarnation isn’t abstract theology — it’s God stepping into our suffering, and never leaving us alone in it.
Our Search for Meaning: Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” continues to resonate decades after its publication, exploring how purpose can transform suffering into strength. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, observed that hope and meaning were lifelines for those enduring unimaginable hardship. His reflections not only illuminate human resilience but also echo truths central to the Christian faith: that our lives are part of a larger story, and even in suffering, purpose and redemption can be found.
What Suffering Prepares
Our sufferings are always preparation for callings—which are, at the highest level, to join Jesus in his work of healing, restoring, and redeeming this world.
When You Or Someone You Love Is Suffering
Pastor Prather takes a look at the book of Job, which he considers the best guidebook he knows for dealing with suffering and loss. As he says, it is an ancient work with timeless applications.