Most of the toughest questions about the Christian faith are not abstract or philosophical but are deeply personal. Whether it’s the problem of suffering and evil, or doubts about whether God could love somebody like us, or the questions and doubts that arise when we feel our prayers go unanswered.

You don’t need to have been a Christian for very long to run into the challenge of prayers feeling as if they are bouncing off the ceiling. So if you’re wrestling with this question, you’re not alone. The famous Christian writer C. S. Lewis said that unanswered prayer, especially as he prayed for his sick and dying mother as a boy, was one reason he abandoned faith for thirty years. Lewis wrote:

The trouble with God is that he is like a person who never acknowledges one’s letters and so, in time, one comes to the conclusion either that he does not exist or that you have got the address wrong.[1]