Book Review: God on Mute

What is a believer to do if her “deepest, most desperate prayers aren’t being answered”? We easily can believe that God doesn’t care, or doesn’t know about our prayers, or even that he doesn’t exist. We are told that, to come to God or to please him, we need to believe that he is and that he rewards those who seek him (Hebrews 11:6). What if we come to him in expectation and hope, only to be frustrated by his silence?

Pete Greig, who founded 24-7 Prayer, in his 2020 masterpiece on unanswered prayer, God on Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer, responds to an issue nearly every believer encounters and yet we discuss all to rarely. His book provides intellectual answers, it is true: he provides a helpful chart of at least 15 possible reasons why a prayer is left unanswered.

Yet the intellectual issues of unanswered prayer are only part of the problem. Anyone who has struggled with praying earnestly only to be met by silence from heaven knows the most profound problems, perhaps, are emotional. Greig encounters these honestly and personally: during the writing of the book he was dealing with the pain of unanswered prayer while his wife battled cancer.

The season of Lent, which many Christian faiths are observing right now, is a particularly fertile time to meditate on heaven’s silence. In fact God on Mute includes a “Forty-Day Journey of Prayer” that can serve as a guide for this season. Each day includes guidance to Pause, Reflect, Ask, and Yield, with connections to the main body of the book.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Greig’s book tells the truth, honestly and unflinchingly, about prayer, silence, suffering, and faith. It is ultimately a profoundly hopeful work for believers who want to grow through their prayers—answered and unanswered.