Theology

Is God Really Blessing American Christians with Answers to Little Prayers While Others Suffer?

Amy K. Hall
Author Amy K. Hall Published on 01/27/2026

I received an email from someone who raised a concern about comfortable, American Christians thanking God for answering little prayers while others in this world suffer without relief. Here’s an excerpt:

I grew up in a country that has made the top 10 list of humanitarian crises in 2025. And, as a U.S. citizen and Christian, I am still trying to figure out why so many American Christians believe their (American) Creator gives them a parking spot on time or makes it so there is no rain on their wedding day, and yet, isn’t able to take care of those who are starving, being bombed, being violated, being kidnapped and praying/begging him for help….

These days, I find myself no longer wanting to claim the Father did this and that for me, because I don’t understand why he isn’t doing the same for billions of people whose condition is much worse than mine. Or, should we claim that such and such blessing (peppered with some privileges) came from him to show that he still moves on earth? I am confused.

While I do have concerns about how American Christians tend to view suffering (see below), I don’t think there’s anything wrong with thanking God for good gifts he’s given to us out of his own grace. If God answers a little prayer, I think we should be thankful, just as we should be thankful for his answering big prayers. In times when I’m going through something horrendous in my life, and I see God answer a little prayer for relief in some specific way, I’m overwhelmed by thankfulness that he has comforted me in that way and imparted a small joy into my life in the midst of trauma. So, the bottom line here is that anytime God blesses us with a joy, big or small, it’s appropriate to thank him for it and feel grateful.

Second, part of the reason most people do not wrestle with survival-level traumas in this country is that our culture has been shaped by the Christian worldview for hundreds and hundreds of years. This is why our laws protect things like human dignity, free speech, property rights, etc. and why our culture values things like honesty, hard work, the rule of law, etc. This all came out of principles of justice laid out by God in the Mosaic Law. Because of this, we start off at a base level of blessings from God that isn’t enjoyed by other cultures—that is, simply because God has been shaping many things in our society, we are free to focus on little joys like no rain on a wedding day. This, too, is a blessing from God that our culture enjoys simply because of the amount of time his ideas have worked to shape our culture. This isn’t just a random “privilege.” This itself is a result of the blessing of God’s revelation of his justice and morality, and I also think it glorifies God and points to the truth of what he’s revealed to us in the Bible.

Here are just a few of the ways the Christian worldview has blessed the West:

Now, having said that, I think many Christians in this country have failed to think carefully about suffering and what it means in terms of our relationship with God. This is the downside of being in a culture that has prospered insofar as it has conformed itself to God’s morality. That is, we’ve forgotten how to suffer well! We’re even surprised by it when it comes, which is silly since so much of the New Testament is about suffering. At times God blesses us through joys, and at times God blesses us through suffering. It’s a different kind of blessing—one that shapes our character, teaches us more about who God is, helps us see his value, and helps us to reveal his value and character to others.

One of my pet peeves is when someone says God is “faithful” when he gives them a gift he never promised to give anyone. Comfort, spouses, good jobs, etc. are not a result of God’s faithfulness, as if he owed them to us! According to Romans 8:28–29, God is faithfully working everything together for the good of making us like Christ, not for making us comfortable or giving us any of those specific things. Any gift we receive is a result of his mercy and grace, not his faithfulness.

Ultimately, we need to keep God’s two greatest goals in mind—our good (i.e., making us like Christ) and his glory—and evaluate everything we go through, including big and little answered prayers, in light of those goals. If we are suffering, we trust that God is working to accomplish those two things through our suffering. We don’t look with envy on those who are receiving gracious, undeserved joys, but instead we rejoice with those who rejoice. If we receive an undeserved joy, we humbly thank God for his graciousness, enjoy his gift, and pray for those who are suffering, weeping with those who weep.

God is glorified in both prosperity and poverty, and according to Paul in Philippians 4:10–13, the secret to living well in both situations is to trust that God will be faithful to give us what we need to become more like Christ and glorify God in any and every situation. Sometimes that even involves our death, as Paul acknowledges when he prays in Philippians 1:18–20 that “Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Why do some end up exalting Christ by life and some by death? God is revealing many different aspects of himself as he accomplishes his plans through us, and we each receive our own path with our own part to play in his story. This doesn’t, however, mean that God favors those who suffer less. In fact, we may find that those who bear the greatest burdens for the Lord now are precisely those who will know him best and love him most in the end.