Here is a confession – I get pretty frustrated about prayer sometimes and angry and frustrated with the ONE I am praying to.

I know I’m not supposed to. After all, I’m a pastor and a longtime Christian.  I think the expectation is that I’m supposed to have unwaveringly serene confidence in the effectiveness of prayer and the ONE I pray to.

But I don’t.  Not always.

I know a lot of really clever things I could tell people about prayer and how it works when they feel the way I sometimes do, but those things just don’t work for me.  They just don’t seem to get me to the “unwavering serene confidence” place when I’m angry and frustrated about things I’ve been praying for, things I’m seeing in the world, that don’t seem to be changing.

I have seen the righteous trampled by injustice while God’s people pray for them and week after week, month after month, year after year, nothing changes.  I have seen the wicked prosper – murderers grow old and evil corporations get rich.  I have seen the innocent suffer, and go on suffering.  And all the while there is a God in heaven who sees it all and there are people praying their broken hearts out.

Thinking and feeling these things – especially writing about these things – could make me a bad pastor and Christian, but at least I’m not alone.  People of faith throughout scripture and Christian history have taken this same anger and frustration about God and prayer to God in prayer for thousands of years.

The prophet Jeremiah says, God, “I would like to have a talk with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  Why do all the faithless live in ease?” (Jeremiah 12:1).  The Psalmist wrestles with this frustration with prayer and God’s lack of intervention and takes this to God over and over again (Psalm 6, Psalm 10, Psalm 13, Psalm 73, Psalm 74, Psalm 94).  So do Job and Ecclesiastes (Job 12:4-6, Ecclesiastes 8).

So why bother praying – especially about unanswered prayers?  Why bother taking a messed up situation to God that God already knows about but is still going on anyway?

I don’t have any fancy answers for you that clear up all the frustrations that come with trusting in a good God in a world that can be crushingly messed up sometimes.

My foundational answer for why I still pray, is that while there is prayer there is still hope.  Prayer is hope.

It is a hope grounded in a belief in God and God’s goodness beyond what my eyes can see.  I might rant and rave at God like the psalmist sometimes or sometimes level polite accusations like Jeremiah, but I keep on praying because if I give up on prayer, I give up on hope – for a situation, for life, for the world, and for how things can and will be.

When I lean into prayer – no matter the circumstances – I find hope, relief, and encouragement.

I hope you keep on praying – praying your gratitudes and your joys, but also your frustrations, your anger, and your doubts.

PS – All of this is expressed so well in Psalm 94, that I decided to post it below:

¹ The Lord is a God who avenges.
O God who avenges, shine forth.
² Rise up, Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve.
³ How long, Lord, will the wicked,
how long will the wicked be jubilant?
⁴ They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
⁵ They crush your people, Lord;
they oppress your inheritance.
⁶ They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.
⁷ They say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”
⁸ Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;
you fools, when will you become wise?
⁹ Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?
Does he who formed the eye not see?
¹⁰ Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
¹¹ The Lord knows all human plans;
he knows that they are futile.
¹² Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord,
the one you teach from your law;
¹³ you grant them relief from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked.
¹⁴ For the Lord will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.
¹⁵ Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
¹⁶ Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
¹⁷ Unless the Lord had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
¹⁸ When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
¹⁹ When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought me joy.
²⁰ Can a corrupt throne be allied with you—
a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?
²¹ The wicked band together against the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
²² But the Lord has become my fortress,
and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.
²³ He will repay them for their sins
and destroy them for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will destroy them.