God on Mute Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer

What do you do when God is silent? Writing out of the pain of his wife's fight for life but also the wonder of watching the prayer movement they founded touch many lives, Pete Greig wrestles with the dark side of prayer and emerges with a hard-won message of hope, comfort, and profound biblical insight for all who suffer in silence.

Pete Greig, the acclaimed author of Red Moon Rising, has written his most intensely personal and honest account yet in God on Mute, a book born out of his wife Samie's fight for her life and diagnosis of a debilitating brain tumor. Greig asks the timeless questions of what it means to suffer and to pray and to suffer through the silence because your prayers seem unanswered. This silence, Greig relates, is the hardest thing. The world collapses. Then all goes quiet. Words can't explain, don't fit, won't work. People avoid you and don't know what to say. So you turn to Him and you pray. You need Him more than ever before. But somehow . . . even God Himself seems on mute. In this heart-searching, honest, and deeply profound book, Pete Greig looks at the hard side of prayer, how to respond when there seem to be no answers, and how to cope with those who seek to interpret our experience for us. Here is a story of faith, hope, and love beyond all understanding.

An honest, soul-searching pursuit of biblical answers to one of Christianity's most challenging questions: What do you do when God meets your prayers with silence?

Many of us have struggled with prayers that seem to go unanswered, and Pete Greig has been down that difficult road of doubt. This book is both intensely personal and deeply theological--a book born out of his wife Sammy's fight for her life after a horrifying diagnosis.

The acclaimed author of Red Moon Rising wrestles with the hard side of prayer, how to respond when there seem to be no answers, and how to cope with those who seek to interpret our experience for us.

For those struggling with prayer, God on Mute brings a message of hope and comfort, but also a better understanding of how we communicate with our Creator. Using the timeline of Holy Week (from Maundy Thursday through Easter Sunday) as a template, Greig explores four main questions about prayer from all angles:

• How am I going to get through this?
• Why aren't my prayers being answered?
• Where is God when he seems silent?
• When every prayer is answered...what does that mean?

Silence in response to our most heart-felt prayers is the hardest thing for a person of faith to wrestle with. The world collapses. Then all goes quiet. Words can't explain what we're going through. People avoid you and don't know what to say. So you turn to Him and you pray. You need Him more than ever before. But somehow even God Himself seems on mute. And this sinks into us with a sense of futility...

But even in this crushing silence, there is a way forward. Here is a story of faith, hope, and love beyond all understanding.

Includes guide for group discussion.