Disappointment in God and Relational Spirituality: Moderator Effects for Meditative Prayer.

This article examines how different styles of prayer influence the relationship between disappointment in God—a form of spiritual struggle—and relational spirituality, defined as how individuals relate to what they perceive as sacred. Using a sample of 207 graduate students from an Evangelical Protestant seminary, the study found that meditative prayer, characterized by being in the presence of God, moderates the negative impact of disappointment in God on adaptive relational spirituality outcomes such as religious well-being and intrinsic religiosity. In contrast, petitionary (asking for needs) and colloquial (conversational) prayer styles did not show significant moderating effects. The findings suggest that meditative prayer may serve as a spiritual resource that buffers against the relational difficulties caused by spiritual disappointment, though causality cannot be established due to the study’s cross-sectional design and limited demographic diversity.