Where Is God in the “No”?: Beyond Prosperity Gospel

Season 1 | Episode 2

What happens when the theology you were given can’t survive the reality of unanswered prayer? Rachel Walters confronts the subtle prosperity-gospel assumptions that turn faith into a formula—pray enough, believe enough, surrender correctly, and God will give you the desired outcome—and asks what happens when faithful people do all of those things, and the answer is still "no".

Drawing from years of infertility, worsening endometriosis, and the painful experience of hearing answered-prayer testimonies while her own suffering continued, Rachel searches for a theology spacious enough to hold both praise and lament. Through voices like Julian of Norwich, ancient Christian traditions, and overlooked biblical stories, she explores a God who does not always remove the thorn but meets us within it—a God whose goodness is measured not only by breakthrough, but in presence.

Rachel also offers practical ways to recognize prosperity thinking in its quieter forms, make room for anger and lament, and find Christian communities and traditions that can hold suffering without turning it into spiritual failure. Because sometimes the miracle isn't healing. Sometimes the answer isn't yes. And faith may mean discovering that even in the “no,” God has not abandoned us.