I may write some posts on how not to deal with those who are suffering. This could be the first of a few or just by itself. I must warn you that this is a rant.

When praying for those who are suffering, or anyone for that matter, there are often things they ask for prayer for, but there are also other things we may pray for that are the ‘hidden things’ that we pray but don’t necessarily mention. These things are ideally things that God has given you insight into or that you’ve just noticed about them. You pray for them but don’t necessarily tell them that you are, especially if they are weaknesses they may have, or you just want to let the Holy Spirit work and see what happens.

Then there are things where someone says, “I’m praying for you for your difficulty and also that you will…” This is no longer prayer. It’s a suggestion. You’re telling the person what you think they should be doing, or what would make you feel good so you’re “suggesting” that they do it also because of course it would make them feel better too. These usually aren’t spiritual things, so they may or may not be God’s will. And now you won’t know if the person does these things because you suggested them or because God is strengthening them to be able to do them, if they even want to.

As an example, you may say, “I’m praying that you’ll get out and get more sun (because vitamin D will heal you), that you’ll see your friend more and that you’ll play that sport you used to play.” Well, maybe they’re taking medication that makes them extremely sensitive to the sun (which is actually the case with me), maybe that friend isn’t a friend anymore or isn’t good for them to be in contact with. You may think they should be more social, but sometimes God wants a period of time where He just wants us for Himself. Who knows. They may not have the energy to play that sport anymore or they may not be able to play it well enough for it to be enjoyable any longer.

Often when people are suffering, people feel they have the right to tell them what they think they should be doing. All the while this person is probably doing other activities they enjoy that require less energy or that they’re better able to handle and they may be actually growing a lot more spiritually because of their suffering than the person giving them the “advice”. I don’t know if there is a name for this phenomenon, but it happens all the time. Ask anyone who suffers chronically.

If I may make a suggestion: pray for things they’ve asked for prayer for. If you receive insight from God or from your own senses, use it privately and carefully, not to judge but to lovingly intercede for them. (There is a great quote by Oswald Chambers on this that I can’t find.) Pray for things that are definitely God’s will. You will find them in the Bible. And realize that they aren’t you and you aren’t them and conventional “wisdom” isn’t always the way to go. They don’t enjoy suffering and are doing more than you think to get out of it or to cope. And at some point when your turn comes up, you may actually be asking them for advice on how to grow spiritually or cope with suffering.

The two things people need the most are listening and prayer.

I hope that wasn’t too curmudgeony and I hope it helps someone see things from a different perspective. And those who are suffering need to “make allowance for each others’ faults and forgive anyone who offends them. Remember, the Lord forgave you so you must forgive others.” (Colossians 3:13) We need to use this as an opportunity to grow all the more.

I would rather be in this chair knowing him, than on my feet without him. And that’s the truth, I have no regrets, absolutely none… everything else, everything worldly pales in comparison.

–Joni Eareckson Tada, No Regrets, Joni and Friends

Philippians 3:8-11 NLT
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

I have this passage memorized, and whenever I review it, which comes along at least once a week, I think about what I used to be able to do and enjoy that I can’t anymore because of depression, chronic fatigue and back pain. But in all of this God has intensified my zeal for knowing Him and has greatly sped up sanctification (being made holy and maturing as a Christian) by leaps and bounds, still with infinite room for improvement. This has given me joy along with helping me to cope. If I were to be asked it if it’s all worth it, I suppose it would depend on what kind of day I’m having. At its worst, when I just want to die, I’m not so sure. I’d still be a Christian otherwise. Unlike Paul, I haven’t come from a different religion where I went through a lot of training and now find it worthless. But what I’ve gained is truly incredible and obviously God working, because spiritually He’s taken me the exact opposite way I’ve gone in almost every other way. This assures me of salvation and shows that God is doing His will and I need to stay with it. We need to persevere (Hebrews 10:36) but it’s God who keeps us (Psalm 55:22, 1 Corinthians 1:8).

Until today I hadn’t seen this book. It looks very good. The description at Amazon makes me want to read it.
To Those Who Suffer: Understanding God’s Purpose and Pathway Through Pain by Sean Nolan

There is a sample chapter and interview with the author at Living For God (Warning: sound will play on that page).

If I could only always remember this, not to mention doctors and well-meaning friends.

Evening Devotion
Sunday, August 14, 2011

“I know their sorrows.” (Exodus 3:7 KJV)
The child is cheered as he sings, “This my father knows”; and shall not we be comforted as we discern that our dear Friend and tender soul-husband knows all about us?

1. He is the Physician, and if he knows all, there is no need that the patient should know. Hush, thou silly, fluttering heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter, and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows thy soul in adversities. Why need the patient analyze all the medicine, or estimate all the symptoms? This is the Physician’s work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and his to prescribe. If he shall write his prescription in uncouth characters which I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but rely upon his unfailing skill to make all plain in the result, however mysterious in the working.

2. He is the Master, and his knowledge is to serve us instead of our own; we are to obey, not to judge: “The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.” Shall the architect explain his plans to every hodman on the works? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The vessel on the wheel cannot guess to what pattern it shall be conformed, but if the potter understands his art, what matters the ignorance of the clay? My Lord must not be cross questioned any more by one so ignorant as I am.

3. He is the Head. All understanding centres there. What judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a brain of its own when the head fulfils for it every intellectual office? Here, then, must the believer rest his comfort in sickness, not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. Sweet Lord, be thou for ever eye, and soul, and head for us, and let us be content to know only what thou choosest to reveal.

Below is a fantastic quote from the free chapter of Joni Eareckson Tada’s book, A Place of Healing. I have three of my own comments inserted in there between brackets [] and in italic where there are similarities.

I wish everyone who was determined to get someone healed or think it’s their loved one’s right to be healed because they’re a ‘good’ Christian would read this. I’ve been very blessed in that I haven’t been in a position where people have told me I don’t have enough faith or say that I must be doing something wrong or not claiming God’s promises. My blogging friends have also been great. But I do get the feeling that many people think it’s just wrong for people to suffer chronically, especially with more than one condition as I do (and she is now also dealing with cancer in addition to paralysis, fatigue and chronic pain), and if they just pray long enough and hard enough, or give the right advice, that amazing healing and happiness and success is just around the corner.

We believe that God can use healing and/or suffering to glorify himself and change us into his image. In addition to praying for outright healing, which we know God will do for his people in his own timing, in this life or at the end, please don’t do people a disservice by not praying for spiritual growth of all kinds. We can find this in prayers in the Bible and know that this is God’s will for everyone. Sticking with them over time is much more difficult and rewarding than praying for them once, finding them not healed and just end up disappointed. Pray for coping, provision and endurance. Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in their spiritual growth by leaving this out.

Continuing to mature through trials gives us hope as God changes our character. (Romans 5:3-4)

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and services were over. I was wheeling across the church parking lot toward my van when a handsome young man, who introduced himself as David, stopped me.

“Are you Joni?” he asked.

I smiled, nodding yes.

“Oh great!” David exclaimed. “I’m a visitor here, and I was hoping I would run into you today. I’ve really been praying for you.”

My eyes got wide. “Really? What about?”

“Your healing. I’ve been praying for you to get out of your wheelchair.”

At that point, my spirit hesitated. David was a visitor. He came to church hoping to see me, and he wanted to see me healed. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met over the years who’ve done the same thing. In churches, on street corners, in convention centers, and in busy shopping malls. Some of those encounters have been a little overwhelming-almost frightening.

But not on this day, with this young man.

Still, I had to fight off eerie feelings. Several times, years ago, a group of men showed up at our farmhouse door in Maryland, all having been led there by the Holy Spirit to either heal me … or marry me! So perhaps you can understand my reticence.

“Well, I never refuse a prayer for healing,” I assured David. [I sincerely say the exact same thing.]

This guy wasted no time in getting down to business, launching into what sounded like a prepared speech. “Have you ever considered that it might be sin standing in the way of your healing? That you’ve disobeyed in some way?” Before I could answer, David flipped open his Bible-both of us still in the middle of the parking lot and read from the gospel of Luke, “Some men came carrying a paralytic on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus” (Luke 5:18-19).

He closed his Bible and reminded me that the paralyzed man in the story was healed. And I could be, too, if only I would but confess my sins and have faith to believe. He added, “Joni, there must be some sin in your life that you haven’t dealt with yet.”

I told him that my conscience was clean before the Lord (he looked a little skeptical about that) and reiterated that I always welcome prayers for healing. I thanked him for his concern but told him I didn’t think this was a matter of faith.

For David, that just didn’t add up. According to what he had been taught, if I was a Christian, and if there was no known sin in my life, and if I had faith that God could heal, well, then … I would be healed. Didn’t God want everyone healed? Didn’t Jesus want everyone well? Of course He did! It was so obvious!

“Joni, you must have a lack of faith. I mean, look at you. You’re still in your wheelchair!”

I thought for a moment about the biblical account he had just read me and asked him to open up his Bible again to that same passage, Luke 5. “Okay,” I said, “you’re right about one thing, David. Right after they lowered the paralyzed man through the roof and to the floor in front of Jesus, he was healed. But look at verse 20. It says that when Jesus saw the faith of those four friends, the man was made well.”

“So?”

“Don’t you see? He didn’t require anything at all of the disabled man. What He was looking for was faith in those men who had lowered him through the roof. God doesn’t require my faith for healing. But He could require yours. The pressure’s off me, David. If God has it in His plan to lift me out of this wheelchair, He could use your faith! So keep believing, friend; the pressure’s on you!” [I also rely on others to have faith for me.]

David didn’t like that point of view. Again, it wasn’t according to his script. It wasn’t what he had been taught. According to all his teachers, if a person wasn’t healed, it had to be a problem with him, with his faith.

Faith, however, is not the focus.

The focus is always on Jesus Christ and His will for those who suffer. [God has been teaching me this more and more which is very difficult to explain to some people.] To possess great faith is to believe in a great Savior, and Scripture welcomes the faith of anyone who believes in Jesus’ will to heal. In the days to come, that “anyone” could well be David.

COUNSELING ONE ANOTHER

In the Books and Stuff – Ebook section he mentions a Kindle book titled Working Through Depression that costs .99 cents. Edit: This is only an introduction and may not be worth reading. I can’t find out how to get the whole book.

I think that one of the more difficult thoughts that we have to overcome is that as Christians we can fall for the often told, or implied, lie that as Christians suffering will no longer be a part of our lives. And if it is, it is because of some moral failure, some lesson that we have to learn, or that it is something that just happens and God is somehow going to make things all right. I think that when we frame suffering in this way we are left with a deficient theology of suffering and in many ways we undermine God’s character. Not only that, but all are terrible alternatives to a Christian’s response to or understanding of suffering. I think that they are shallow, hurtful and inconsistent with the what the bible says. What makes matters more amazing is that we have not investigated deeply enough what God, Jesus, and the writers of the Old and New Testament have to teach us about suffering.

–Victor Scott, Why Not Me?: Rethinking How and Why We Suffer | Part 3, also see Part 1 and Part 2

There are a lot of quotable quotes on these and I think it’s a valuable read.

The Gift of Suffering – I confess I haven’t listened to this yet but I wanted to pass it along.

These would have gone on the old Suffering Christians blog, which merged with this one.

This is taken from Reformissionary:

John Piper’s verbal biographies are wonderful. I’m listening again to his bio of Spurgeon and just had to throw up a few quotes. They are rocking me today in the midst of all the stuff our family is going through. Here’s the Piper audio, and the manuscript [1995].

It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.

Another…

I dare say the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness … If some men, that I know of could only be favoured with a month of rheumatism, it would, by God’s grace mellow them marvelously.

I haven’t been writing much and wanted to at least pass on a couple of new (to me) blogs.

Forward Progress

I like the post on Should You Make Your Kids Go to Church? (Sorry I can’t remember where I got this from.) Not because I have kids but because it makes me think about why we should do things. Many people talk about feeling led (notice the word feeling–it’s such a common term we often don’t even notice that) to do something* or doing things with the ‘right motivation’. I think it’s important to do things firstly out of obedience to God. Hopefully this would stem from love for God, which would be right motivation, but lack of (right) motivation shouldn’t keep us from anything. I’ve done plenty of good deeds I didn’t feel led to do and didn’t have the right motivation. But it met someone’s need and is almost certainly something God predestined me to do. That may sound like a Calvinist joke, but see Ephesians 2:10.

I won’t write more on that now because I want to get back to reading If God Is Good where I found the next blog.

Life Together

In the book, Randy Alcorn mentions a post titled Justin, Dustin, and God’s Lessons in Suffering.

*People often say at the end of a meeting to pray if you feel led. What if I don’t feel led but planned on it beforehand? What does it feel like to feel led? What if somebody is really nervous and can’t feel anything? What if I feel led but don’t have a single thing to say? O, these feelings.

1 Peter 4:19 NRSV
Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.

Do you ever even consider the possibility, that maybe, the Creator’s sense of justice is actually more developed than yours?

-Francis Chan, in a sobering video, for us all, related to his forthcoming book, Erasing Hell

This is just a small quote I wrote down that I liked, but it’s well worth watching the whole nine minutes for so many reasons.

Job 42:10-11 NRSV
And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. 11 Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him;

The last part being the unpopular part. Although it was Satan that caused it, without God giving him permission it wouldn’t have happened.

Lamentations 3:37-38 NRSV
Who can command and have it done, if the Lord has not ordained it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?

Three eclectic items for you. I’m still not doing well, maybe worse. Please pray. I really don’t want to go to the hospital.

Proverbs 30:1-3 NLT
The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh contain this message.
I am weary, O God; I am weary and worn out, O God.
2 I am too stupid to be human, and I lack common sense.
3 I have not mastered human wisdom, nor do I know the Holy One.

Job 25:4-6
How can a mortal be innocent before God?
Can anyone born of a woman be pure?
5 God is more glorious than the moon; he shines brighter than the stars.
6 In comparison, people are maggots; we mortals are mere worms.”

Psalm 22:5-6
They cried out to you and were saved.
They trusted in you and were never disgraced.
6 But I am a worm and not a man.
I am scorned and despised by all!

Clifford observes that these examples of “low anthropology,” of self-abasement, express reverence.

–Bruce Waltke, Proverbs, quoting Clifford, Proverbs, p. 26

This makes sense because even these examples don’t begin to measure the difference in knowledge and wisdom, between God and us. One of my favorite phrases lately, when I’m not at my worst, is “I’m too stupid to be human.”

Isaiah 55:8-9
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

The more we learn this, the more we realize what a wretch we are, as in the hymn Amazing Grace, or how Wretched, as in the radio show.

On another note:

Hope for Your Dark Night of the Soul

And:

Marks of maturity
This ‘walk’ is similar to mine. I’m not sure I’m at the second part yet, or at least some of them. It’s an interesting post in any case.

Being in extreme agony last week (and still not doing real well, but better), for the second time in my life I wasn’t able to do much devotional type stuff at all. The other time was after my recent surgery and had to have my wife read the Bible to me. All of the other times, I was either sick or suffering a great amount from mental health stuff (sometimes at the same time), I was able to do these things. But when things are at their worst, I can hardly stand any stimulation of any kind. That may be why you see so many suffering people just sitting or lying down doing nothing.

I certainly prayed, but not all the stuff I usually pray about. I didn’t read the Bible enough or review very much memorized Scripture.

I’m not legalistic about this stuff. I love doing it. Talking to God, having Scripture memorized, reading the Bible and books about it or God–I can’t get enough.

But this served to re-iterate that God, in a sense, doesn’t care so much about that. He knows how much I want to love what he loves and hate what he hates and I pray for this a lot (Phil. 4:8, 1 Peter 1:15). He answers in the affirmative (and it’s a process of course) because it’s God’s will for everyone.

Even though I think I should have made more of an effort to read the Bible more, partly because of taking refuge in God and therapeutic value, I know that this, 1-doesn’t change one bit how much God loves me and 2-that God can get along just fine without some of my prayers. I’m not that important (Daniel 4:35).

I found a good video on part of this.

HT

Here are some good things I’ve found. I’m having one of the worst weeks of my life (maybe top four) so it’s a relevant topic. This would have gone on the Suffering Christians blog before I merged it here.

Matt Chandler on suffering T4G 2010 Part 1 of 3 (YouTube)

The Pastor without a Paycheck – an interview with Randy Alcorn – this is an older familiar story but if you haven’t read it you may find it interesting. He has written some great books including If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.

Oswald Chambers: You Are Not Your Own – from Randy Alcorn’s blog

From Dave Black Online Monday, February 21 at 7:56 PM:

In a recent email to a friend of hers, Becky likened our journey to the “Perfect Storm” that hit the East Coast in 1991. (Maybe you’ve seen the movie by the same name.) Several different weather systems, each coming from a different direction, collided off the coast of New England to produce a storm of catastrophic proportions. Of course, every storm has its silver lining. What lessons has God been trying to teach me as we’ve gone through this “Perfect Storm”? They have been many and sundry.

• Every trial is an opportunity to accept the circumstances God has placed me in  — with a thankful spirit to boot.
• Every trial is a chance to “think of yourself with sober judgment” (Rom. 12:3) — that is, to reassess my personal strengths and weaknesses and to anchor my self-worth in God rather than in my circumstances or accomplishments.
• Each of these trials has forced me to confess my pride to God and pray for the Holy Spirit to transform me from the inside out and from the bottom up. In particular, my emotions, especially my negative emotions, cause me sometimes to feel that God is distant. During these periods of doubt and self-pity, I find it helpful to focus on Scriptural promises, remembering that “God works together for good all things” (Rom. 8:28) — even my stress.
• Finally, every trial is an opportunity to learn to pace myself by becoming more pro-active in some areas of life and by slowing down in others. The goal is always a balance between “burnout” and “self-indulgence.” I find this balance harder and harder to attain the older I get. The key, of course, is walking in the Spirit — letting God show me moment by moment and even second by second what is His good, pleasing, and perfect will. It involves paying special attention to chronic fatigue, which is a sure sign of underlying stress. It is a call to exercise common sense by eating properly, getting proper rest and exercise, heeding the advice of friends, becoming aware of mood swings, and releasing past and present emotional hurts to God.

The bottom of the bottom line? Jesus never promised us a life without discouragement. Even grave discouragement. Especially if we’re living life “on the edge” for the sake of the Gospel. Mission work has more than its share of obstacles and stresses. So does normal, everyday life. The trials that Becky and I have faced have all been blessings in disguise. Some of them we just “got over,” then moved on. Others remain — defying resolution. Whatever the trial, we’re asking the Holy Spirit to help us make wise and balanced decisions. Our greatest desire is to allow God to use the severe pain and hurt we are experiencing to build our character and to make us more serviceable in His kingdom.

Also see:
How Could A Good God Allow Suffering and Evil? – an interview with Randy Alcorn, including, “You shouldn’t say certain things to people who are suffering”.

Quote of the Day: Suffering

The blessing of Affliction

Dealing with Depression, Part Two

This quote comes to me via Dave Black Online (as did the previous link). If there ever was a reason for me to learn Greek this is it. My About page explains why. See the rest of the article by Sean Winter at the linked post.

Learning New Testament Greek is not just a tool for seeing new things in the text, it is a tool for beginning to see why many of the things you have been taught to see might actually be bad interpretations.

Sean Winter, Jesus, Peter and Reading the New Testament in Greek
Learning New Testament Greek is not just a tool for seeing new things in the text, it is a tool for beginning to see why many of the things you have been taught to see might actually be bad interpretations.

Cryptotheology 2.0

How Did the Church Interpret the Days of Creation before Darwin?

Waterdrop Heart Photo (manipulated)

D.A. Carson writes a chapter in his book How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil about firm structures to establish in helping Christians before suffering comes. I think this is the most important.

Above all, we must help people know God better. Too many answers we give are merely intellectual, merely theoretical, merely propositional. We must so teach and counsel and pray with people that we deepen their experiential knowledge of God. We must so get them into meditative and rigourous reading of the Word of God that they draw vast comfort from its pages. At the deepest level, men and women must learn, with Job, that God is very great, and it is an inexpressible privilege to know Him, to be satisfied with Him, even when – especially when! – we do not have all the answers. Then men and women will learn to rest in His love, and will return again and again to the Cross, where their vision of that love will be constantly renewed.

–D. A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil, pg. 224

Also see:
When You’re Too Tired To Pray

After writing a possibly humorous and possibly ill-timed post about David Black “running into an old friend” I thought I’d post this wonderful entry about their battle with his wife Becky’s cancer. I would like to be able to “suffer well” as they do.

Tuesday, January 18
8:24 PM We’re home! As you know, we had a very important meeting with the thoracic surgeon at UNC this afternoon. The bottom line is this: Becky’s lung tumors are inoperable. This means that surgery is no longer an option (if it ever was), just as more radiation and chemo have been ruled out as therapies since they have proven to be ineffective. There remains the possibility of treating her with a procedure called Cyber-Knife (Robotic Radiosurgery), which UNC just “happens” to specialize in. It involves shooting the larger tumors with extremely high levels of radiation. Pending approval by the Cyber-Knife committee, we are looking at this procedure taking place in about two weeks. Before that can happen, “fiducials” must be placed into Becky’s lungs by a thoracic surgeon to help the oncologists know exactly where to concentrate the radiation. We have tentatively scheduled this procedure for next week Thursday. Of course, all of this awaits the blessing of our insurance company.

How to respond? Just like Paul in Philippians! Just as Paul could write that his imprisonment had turned out for the progress of the Gospel, so Becky and I know that our cancer journey has worked out for the best and the future holds no shadows. Our one fear is that we might betray Christ by our lives and testimony. Our single desire is to live in a manner worthy of the Gospel (Phil. 1:27) – to live in a way that commends the Gospel to our friends and neighbors. We desire to be more concerned about the needs of others than our own – to be unselfish, unconceited, to take the path of obedience, to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the companionship of His sufferings. We know we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. We are confident that our God shall supply all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. On top of it all, we know that our love for Ethiopia has never diminished. No distance can weaken it and no amount of suffering can quench it.

So thanks muchly for your prayers. And for your love. After our appointment with the surgeon I took Becky out for dinner at the Outback Steak House in Durham. As we ate we thought of our many cyber friends. I told Becky, “Every time we eat at the Outback I think of Aussie John, who has been such a faithful prayer partner with us through this entire journey.” Becky replied, “Won’t heaven be wonderful, Dave? We’ll get to meet in person all of the wonderful people we only know now by name.”

All I could say was, “Amen, honey, amen.”

Christian faith does not grant immunity from sadness and sickness, from bereavement and disappointment. At least not now! Those who suggest that it does mean the present enjoyment of health and wealth and peace and prosperity appeal to the general desire for wellbeing that marks our culture. But such a story is neither true to the Bible nor to human experience.

–Alistair Begg

HT: Michael Acidri via Facebook

John 16:33 HCSB
“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

Review: Nancy Guthrie. Be Still, My Soul: Embracing God’s Purpose and Provision in Suffering.

I didn’t realize this was a collaborative effort with contributors such as Tim Keller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, D.A. Carson, Joni Eareckson Tada and more. I already had this on my list but it just went higher.

Be Still, My Soul: Embracing God’s Purpose and Provision in Suffering