"you can’t judge God by the actions of his people, right?"
you can't possibly mis-label people based upon their declarations or professings, right
jesus already

"I had learned over time to reduce my expectations to almost nothing."
so iow he still had expectations

"But then again, Bible-believing Christians like me"
who demonstrate that they have not read the Bible with one eye rather than two, as instructed,
"According to the Bible, failing to approach these things with earnest expectation would have been a failure on our part:

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” —Hebrews 11:6"
case in point

"The Bible clearly instructed us to pray for certain things with an expectation that God would be faithful to fulfill those “promises” in one way or another."
this man is an idiot, and I would refer one to the beginning of the article for the argument against this retarded pov

"For example, we were told by both Jesus and James to pray for the sick so that they could be healed, but more often than not they weren’t."
bc literal healing is being sought by those who actually seek a remediation of their symptoms and not a cessation of the causes which an actual "prayer" (wish) would provide, revealing their hypocrisy, see. You reap what you sow, and pray to God like santa claus lol, the exact thing you decry in the beginning of the article.

You absolutely did expect God to make you happy, you fucking liar

"Jesus himself prayed that his followers would remain preternaturally unified as a sign that what he claimed about himself was true, but the sad reality is that the church has splintered into tens of thousands of pieces."
this is bc you have the same corrupted, whacko definition of "Church" that the children who go there have and not the real one, which trust me is doing just fine, you just don't know where it is! And if you ever cracked a Bible you would know that the Church is the people, not the building

I could go on but I guess you get the point no offense meant to the author, he does make some good points for a Hegelian imo

If you've come from a church life where YOU are the one with the problem for asking the hard questions, then this may be a good read for you. Looking back on the decades I spent immersed in American Fundamentalism I see countless examples of straw men and gaslighting as a means used to protect the belief system.