Where Is My Hope Found?

I wrote an article a few years ago on the topic of what happens when God doesn’t answer prayers in ways we want them to be answered. It was a hard subject to delve into because there is no good human explanation to why God does what He does (that’s why He is God; human brains cannot comprehend everything that an all-powerful, all-knowing God does). Call me naive, but I’m still hanging onto faith, even when things don’t go the way I think they should.

Recently, I have realized that there are so many contemporary Christian songs that deal with this issue. I have an enormous library of Christian music dumped into a playlist on my phone. So many of the songs on there deal with the struggles of what happens when God doesn’t answer the prayer the way I want it answered.

My first “real” concert was the Christian music band MercyMe at Bluestem Amphitheater in Moorehead in 2018. I know and love most of their music, from years past up until now. At this concert, one thing that continues to stick with me is the story that lead singer Bart Millard shared about his son, Sam.

Sam received a type one diabetes diagnosis when he was two years old. Bart Millard shared on stage how much the diagnosis impacted him and how he prayed to God for a miracle for his toddler son. From this, Millard took away something that still sticks with me. Paraphrasing his exact words, he recalled how he struggled with the idea of knowing that God can take away all disease and illness, and in Sam’s case, God did not miraculously heal Sam.

What does a father do in this case, when their child is sick and knows that God can heal his son — and He won’t?

From his experience, Millard wrote the song “Even If." The lyrics of the chorus are written in a way that I want readers to notice: “I know the sorrow and I know the hurt/ Would all go away if You just say the word/ But even if you don’t/ My hope is You alone.”

Where else does a Christian run if not to Jesus? Even if our prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling, even if He doesn’t act in the way we want Him to, as Millard said on stage and continues to sing in his lyrics, our hope is Christ alone. He has a plan beyond what we see in the physical world with our limited knowledge. When all we can see is this one thing right in front of us, He might actually be doing a million other things that we do not see ourselves.

Pulling another example from Christian music, artist Allison Eide has been very open about her own mental health struggles and how anxiety, depression and other mental tribulations keep her constantly depending on God to sustain her. However, the biggest trial she has sung about is losing her father to cancer.

Eide was extremely close to her father (also a professional singer-songwriter), who fostered her love of music. She could not understand how God could let him die. Her song “How It Is” was written in his honor: "I don’t know why the world is the way it is/ So many questions and I’m down here/ Wondering/ Just how a God that’s up above is good in all of this?/ God only knows/ And thank God that’s how it is."

Her single, released in November 2025, also incorporates the loss of her father and the inability for humans to comprehend all the injustice in the world.

Even the toughest Christians struggle. I like to see examples of artists of my favorite music taking their pain and putting it into lyrics and music. It shows that we are not alone in our struggles and our asking of why. There are many examples of this in the Bible as well, even from great leaders of our faith.

The prophet Elijah became depressed and bitter towards God when he felt he was alone in standing up for God, and even asked God to take him out of this world (1 Kings 19). The entire book of Job shows how he lost everything — his family, his wealth, his possessions and even the approval of his wife — but still refused to curse God, because what hope did he have if he gave up God?

We don’t know why God does what He does. Whether it be a bad grade on a test we studied hard for or something as intense as a bad diagnosis, we cannot always understand what God has in mind.

I can tell you what we can do: we can ask God for peace. We can ask Him for wisdom. We can tell Him how we are feeling and that we do not understand. We can be sad, upset, angry, worried and anything in between, and we can bring Him what we are feeling. He cares: “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1st Peter 5:7).

We might never understand what God is doing in this world. His eternal plan is always working, and nothing takes Him by surprise. Sometimes all we need to do is to be still and know that He is still Sovereign God over everything in our lives (Psalm 46:10) — even the things we do not understand.

The Bible is a great resource if you are looking for answers to circumstances you do not understand. The book of Job deals directly with this issue, but I also find Psalms, the book of John, or any of the Gospels, really, to be helpful. I like seeing the character of Jesus in the flesh on the pages, and how He directly deals with the issues of the earth He walked.

If you are looking for music that deals with these themes, such as the songs I outlined, I have several for you. Sometimes music can be a prayer when we don’t know what to pray:

"Why Why Why" by Allison Eide

"How It Is" by Allison Eide

"Even If" by MercyMe

"Hallelujah Anyway" by Rend Collective

"Need You Now" by Plumb

"Help" by Riley Clemmons and Jordan St. Cyr

"Godsend" by Riley Clemmons

"Hope in Front of Me" by Danny Gokey

"God Only Knows" by For King and Country

"Have Your Way" by Britt Nicole

"Walk by Faith" by Jeremy Camp

"I Still Believe" by Jeremy Camp

"No Matter What" by Kerry Roberts

Don’t stop praying. Don’t give up. In this world, there is trouble, but Jesus has already overcome the world in more ways than we can ever see (John 16:33).