What can we say about unanswered prayer? We pray for years and years and heaven stays silent. We pray with hope for things to get better only to wake up to see that things are either the same or worse. And in these times we ask, “Why?”

We want to know the reasons for our suffering with good intentions. After all, if I know that something has happened as a result of what I have done or failed to do or said or failed to say, I can fix things. If I am shown the error of my ways I can possibly make amends with the hope and promise that things will get better.

Or if I am told that there is some purpose behind my suffering, I could bear the difficult times knowing that there is some meaning to this pain I am experiencing. I would still dislike the suffering, but I would be able to put up with it keeping in mind a larger picture.

But when there are no answers or explanations, when my pain is not given any meaning or purpose that I am aware of, then it is likely that I will get plagued by feelings of futility and emptiness, the purposelessness gnawing at the depths of my being, calling into question my own reason for being.

But then I realize that one crucial difference between the true God and the false gods is that the true God has designed us to flourish in relationship with him while the false gods have a transactional approach to the life of faith. And what do we know about relationships? Well, one thing that characterizes all relationships is disappointment. I expect something of you and am disappointed when you do not deliver. You expect something of me and are disappointed when I do not deliver.

In this life the toughest test we face is that of being disappointed with God. Many have rejected God and turned their backs on him when he has disappointed them. Many see the evil and suffering in the world and decide that they want to have nothing to do with the God who permits these things.

Indeed, it is in the face of unexplained evil and unmerited suffering that we find ourselves most cruelly tested. And when this evil or suffering comes calling closer to home the agony increases hundredfold for we cannot bear to see those we love suffer. But our agony does nothing to quench the evil or dispel the suffering.

All we are left with then are interminable questions – questions that we believe would make life easier to bear had we but the answers to them. However, asking the questions does not guarantee that we will receive the answers we seek. Indeed, even if we do receive the answers, there is no guarantee that we would find them comforting.

But we have been deceived. We have been led to expect God to deal with us in ways that he has not promised. We have been led to expect a transactional life with God rather than a relational one. In a transaction, both parties fulfill certain conditions and the outcomes are predetermined. So I do this or refrain from doing that and expect that God would do something for me.

This is what every religion promises. Please God and he will show you he is pleased with you. Displease him and you will face his displeasure. This is why Marx called religion the opiate of the masses. Opium, at that time, was used as a painkiller. And Marx was saying that religion simply helped people to drown their sorrows and dull the pain they feel.

But the Christian faith is not a religion of that sort. Rather, everything in the life of a Christian must be viewed through the filter of the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus is the hermeneutic key to understanding a Christian’s life.

What do we learn from the crucifixion of Jesus? We learn that, in a fallen world, filled with fallen and broken humans, the innocent suffer. We learn that suffering does not mean that we have earned God’s displeasure. We learn that suffering does not mean that we have sinned. Indeed, we learn, as we learn from Job, that those who are closest to God are the ones whom Satan is more likely to target.

Of course, knowing this does not make enduring the suffering any easier! We still have to deal daily with the agony of our suffering and the pain of the silence of heaven. We still have to go through each day with no assurance that today would be better than yesterday. This is the problem of a life of faith in the true God. There are no assurances that things will get better for us. There are no guarantees that we will have good health or have enough wealth. After all, if there were guarantees, it would not need faith! And if there were guarantees, we would never be able to experience the faithfulness of God!