Heavy question? Yes, I know—it caused me to pause as well. Still, I listened to the brother as he expressed himself and what he meant by asking, “Why doesn’t the power of God work when it’s needed the most?”
Have you ever heard someone describe a church service by saying, “The power of God was there—you just had to be there,” or, “We had a ‘high’ time in the Lord; the power was present”? What do people mean by these statements? In what way do they believe they’ve experienced the power of God?
Did someone get up out of a wheelchair and run across the room? Did a blind parishioner gain their eyesight? Were deaf ears opened during the service? Or is it just a figure of speech—a way of saying the power of God was present because you danced, shouted, cried, had an emotional moment, and left feeling good?
Maybe you went to church feeling sad and depressed but left elated, as if on a spiritual “high.” Is that what we equate to the power of God? And if so, what happens when those same feelings of sadness and depression return after some time after the service is over?
Perhaps our fascination with power and our desire to “see” something tangible has pushed us to misrepresent Christ. In doing so, we may have unintentionally led people to leave the faith, concluding that God is powerless, disappointing, or no better than the gods offered by other religions. It’s hard to serve a God who seems to contradict the ideas and perceptions we’ve been taught about Him.
For almost three years, I watched my brother battle stage IV colon cancer. Between prayer, fasting, declaring scriptures, begging, and pleading with God for his life—there were altar calls, anointing with oil, and the laying on of hands, all in hopes of seeing the power of God show up to perform a miracle.
But despite watching his health gradually decline, despite the doctors saying there was nothing else to be done, despite hospice care, and, finally, staring at his lifeless body on a hospice bed—where was the power of God I was taught about?
Maybe I didn’t have enough faith.
Maybe I needed to find the hidden sin that caused this.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.
Or maybe… it was the will of God.
It wasn’t until I lost my brother that I began to question some of my own theology. Either I had some things wrong about God, or God was not all He was cracked up to be.
Believing I served a flawless God, I began to search myself for the flaw in my theology. That journey led me to explore topics like the Sovereignty of God and the Providence of God—concepts I had never been taught in the local fellowships I attended. This brought a sobriety to my walk with God that I had never experienced in my entire Christian life.
There is so much more to God than the ideas we’ve conjured up or the misinterpretations of scripture that have been proclaimed from so many pulpits.
For those of you who still desire to be believers but are finding it hard to believe because of how life has transpired, may I offer you a few lessons to help you:
Know WHAT you believe and WHY you believe it. Knowing what you believe and why you believe it is vital to have a faith that lasts. It’s not enough to simply go along with what you’ve heard or to rely on emotional experiences. When life throws challenges your way, a shaky understanding of God and His word won’t hold up. You need to know the foundational truths about who God is, what He’s done, and how that impacts your life. This isn’t just about defending your faith to others—it’s about being secure in your relationship with God so that doubts and hardships don’t uproot you.
God’s power is not based on human perception. We often associate God’s power with visible, dramatic events, but that’s not how God works. His power isn’t tied to what we can see or feel in the moment. It’s not about whether someone gets healed instantly or whether a service is emotionally charged. God’s power is constant and operates according to His will, not our limited understanding. Just because you don’t see Him working doesn’t mean He isn’t. This is why it’s so important to trust Him beyond what your eyes can see or your emotions can interpret.
God’s sovereignty and will are NOT our will. God’s sovereignty means He’s in control of everything, even when life feels chaotic or unfair. His will doesn’t always align with what we want or think is best, and that can be hard to accept. But God sees the entire picture—past, present, and future—while we only see what’s in front of us. Trusting His sovereignty means surrendering our desires to Him and believing that His plans are for our ultimate good, even when they don’t make sense at the moment.
There is a difference between human expectations and God’s ways. We have expectations for how we think God should act—when and how He should show up. But God’s ways are often completely different from what we anticipate. Our expectations are shaped by our limited understanding, while God’s ways are rooted in His perfect wisdom. When we hold tightly to our own expectations, we can miss what God is actually doing. Learning to let go of what we think should happen and trusting in His ways brings peace, even in uncertainty.
God’s timing is NOT our timing. We live in a world that expects instant results, but God doesn’t work on our timetable. What seems like a delay to us is often His perfect timing in action. God is never late, and He’s never in a rush. Waiting can be one of the hardest parts of faith, but it’s in the waiting that God often grows our patience and trust in Him. His timing is always better than ours, even if we can’t see it in the moment.
God’s ways and thoughts are NOT our ways and thoughts. God’s wisdom and understanding go far beyond anything we could ever comprehend. While we focus on what’s right in front of us, God sees the bigger picture, the eternal plan. This truth can be humbling, reminding us that we’re not in control and that we can’t always understand what He’s doing. But instead of resisting, we’re invited to trust that His ways are higher and better than anything we could imagine.
God’s power extends beyond our world and is not measured by His moving in our individual situations. Sometimes we limit God’s power to what He does in our personal lives, but God’s work extends far beyond that. He’s not just concerned with fixing our immediate problems—He’s upholding the universe, transforming hearts, and bringing His eternal purposes to pass. When we focus only on what we want Him to do for us, we miss the incredible scope of His power. Trusting in His greater work gives us confidence that He’s in control, even when our circumstances don’t change.
Suffering is to be expected. Suffering is not a sign that God has abandoned you—it’s a reality of life in a broken world. In fact, the Bible tells us to expect suffering and trials as part of our walk with Christ. While it’s never easy, suffering can be a tool that God uses to refine our character, deepen our faith, and draw us closer to Him. Knowing this doesn’t make the pain disappear, but it does give us hope and perspective as we endure hardship, trusting that God is with us and working through it all.
So, why doesn’t the power of God work when it’s needed the most? The truth is, that God’s power is always at work, but not always in the ways we expect or desire. We often equate His power with immediate fixes, dramatic miracles, or emotional highs, but God’s power isn’t confined to our perceptions. His ways and timing are far beyond ours, and His purposes often stretch beyond what we can see at the moment.
Sometimes, what we think is the absence of God’s power is actually His sovereignty at work. It’s not that He’s powerless or indifferent—it’s that He’s carrying out a plan that aligns with His perfect will, not ours. This doesn’t make it easy to endure suffering, unanswered prayers, or loss, but it invites us to trust in a God who is bigger than our circumstances and faithful beyond our understanding.
The power of God doesn’t always show up in the miraculous or the immediate. It shows up in the strength to endure, the peace in the storm, the transformation of hearts, and the eternal purposes that go far beyond what we can comprehend. His power works not just to solve our problems but to refine our faith, draw us closer to Him, and accomplish His greater plan.
So, maybe the question isn’t why God’s power doesn’t work when it’s needed the most. Maybe the question is whether we trust His power to work in the ways He knows are best. It’s a sobering, sometimes painful shift in perspective, but one that reminds us to look beyond the temporary and into the eternal.