Presence Despite Pain
A Review of
Praying in Pain: How to Know You’re Heard When You Haven’t Been Healed
Glenna Marshall
Paperback: Moody Publishers, 2026
Buy Now: [ BookShop ] [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ] [ Audible ]
Reviewed by Rachel Goddard
I hesitate to use “seen” to describe what I felt reading Glenna Marshall’s latest book, Praying in Pain: How to Know You’re Heard When You Haven’t Been Healed. The sentiment is overused, treacly, soft. It is, however, the closest I can come to explaining my reaction when I read Marshall’s opening chapters describing how she, as a fellow chronic pain sufferer, knows how much “we do want to be understood. We want our limitations to be acknowledged, but that requires talking about our ongoing pain…So we complain to be heard. To be seen. To be understood” (20).
The book is lived theology, the kind of God-knowledge that only comes from the depth of experience you wish you didn’t have. What makes this different from a chronic pain memoir, however, is Marshall’s commitment to Scripture. The book maps out biblical lament, which she breaks down into four movements: lament, cry out, remember, resolve. Her goal is to move chronic pain sufferers out of despair and into firm faith (22). She has written her own Sufferer’s Lament, and in each chapter, Marshall tells a little of her own pain story while encouraging the reader to have their own conversation with God about their pain.
Marshall could easily have lost readers by promising God would heal them if they just prayed or believed enough. She is too honest to do so, and while I desperately wish someone would tell me my chronic pain would end, I would have dropped this book if she had. She shares her own pastor’s reminder that God always heals, through miraculous healing, common grace healing through medication or treatment, or healing in heaven (57). I am grateful for her honesty. Her discussion of why she believes God may choose not to heal this side of heaven is nuanced and Scripture-based. I was left chewing on her words, and, more importantly, taking them to God to talk to him about them.
There is something here for every person at every point in their pain journey. There will be those who just need to see another fellow sufferer’s words on the page and feel tears fall in relief—relief that a fellow Christian understands. That their despair in their unrelenting pain doesn’t mean they’ve been forgotten by God or that they are a “bad Christian.” Someone else may be ready to hear that their suffering has a redemptive purpose; God wants them to lay down their self-sufficiency and rely on their church family (102). The truly brave—and I am not one, yet—may reach the point Marshall has, thanking God for the goodness God is working out through the suffering while looking forward to their new, pain-free body in eternity (132).
The book closes with a letter from Marshall’s husband to others who love and care for chronic pain sufferers, so I asked my husband to read it. He doesn’t need the advice – he almost naturally follows it – but he returned to the room and stated, “I’m glad this was included. I needed this.”
May my fellow pain sufferers find comfort in this book and in God, as I have.
Rachel Goddard
Rachel Goddard is an insatiable bookworm and avid crafter. She is the Director of Operations for a small non-profit, after 14 years with the federal government. She holds a master's in Defense and Strategic Studies from Missouri State University and a Bachelor's in Political Science and International Relations from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, Richard, and her cat, Izzy.
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
Understanding Christian Nationalism [A Reading Guide] |
 Most Anticipated Books of the Fall for Christian Readers!
|
 Hilarious One-Star Customer Reviews of Bibles |
