Showing results for "Death, Hope" in Spiritual Growth

Everybody waits. We wait for a spouse, wait for a baby, wait on our children, wait for our parents. We wait for clarity and direction. We wait on a job, a promotion, a new direction. We wait for hope, for healing, and for miracles. We wait on God. And when we misunderstand what waiting is about, we can get confused about what God is up to. Waiting is one of God’s favorite tools. He can do certain things in our hearts, our lives, and our relationships while we wait - things we cannot experience once we’ve opened the gift we have been waiting for.

Times of disaster are unavoidable. We don’t get to choose whether or not to live in such times. We can only choose what to do with the time that we live. Will we let fear and darkness overwhelm us, or will we choose to shine the light of hope? In Hope in Any Crisis, pastor and best-selling author Bill Johnson reveals the powerful divine protection offered to you as a believer, three responses you can experience in times of uncertainty, and your responsibility to have hope in all things.

Come rain or shine, hardship or ease, confusion or clarity, worship is always a choice. But what does it look like when worship meets suffering? How can God be good when it seems the world is collapsing around you? In this inspiring audiobook, Matt and Beth Redman draw on their experiences to explore how to offer praise even in the face of hardship and pain. Focusing on the psalms, they reveal how difficult or tragic circumstances and the choices you make can propel you toward God or away from him.

This is the first Chicken Soup audiobook to focus specifically on stories of faith, including 101 of the best stories from Chicken Soup’s library on faith, hope, miracles, and devotion. These true stories written by regular people tell of prayers answered miraculously, amazing coincidences, rediscovered faith, and the serenity that comes from believing in a greater power, appealing to Christians and those of other faiths, and everyone who seeks enlightenment and inspiration through a good story.

Admitted to the ICU with COVID-19, Steve Boyls spent forty-five days on a ventilator and three and a half months in the hospital. As his body struggled to stay alive, his wife, Dr. Kathy Boyls, fought bureaucracy, medical protocols, and demonic attacks and, through warfare, supported by friends and family, received a miracle.

Jesus said that in this life we will have pain, heartbreak, and trials. So how do we deal with our pain? What does it look like to walk with God in our grief? In Hope for My Hurting Heart, bestselling author Linda Dillow offers practical wisdom, real-life stories, biblical teachings, and encouragement to help you navigate pain, and loss and find hope and healing through God’s love.

In her early 20’s, Catherine Renfro received a phone call no one should have. In broken hopelessness, her brother, Barrett, called out with despair before taking his own life. She and her father would rush over to his home only to find out that he was no longer with them. Catherine went through a season of grief that hundreds of thousands of people endure every year in America. But even in the midst of anger, suffering, and guilt, she would say that Christ never left her.

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER* A cancer diagnosis caused Tyler Merritt—beloved author of I Take My Coffee Black—to realize that there was no time for anger, unforgiveness, foolishness, or lost friendships. None of us have any time to waste. When Tyler Merritt was diagnosed with cancer, everything he...

We're all going to die. Yet in our medically advanced, technological age, many of us see death as a distant reality - something that happens only at the end of a long life or to other people. In The End of the Christian Life, J. Todd Billings urges Christians to resist that view. Instead, he calls us to embrace our mortality in our daily life and faith. This is the journey of genuine discipleship, Billings says, following the crucified and resurrected Lord in a world of distraction and false hopes.

Where is Jesus when we need him most? An influential pastor shares how despair can lead us to discover true hope and a deeper relationship with God, helping us emerge stronger and more joyful from times of crisis. “May this careful look at pain in the context of Jesus’s life open up avenues...

Though suffering often leaves us feeling isolated, God invites us into the community of the Trinity and offers us many companions in scripture. We experience loneliness alongside the exiled Israelites. We journey with David as he pleads to God for rescue. With Asaph we confess our unbelief. With Job we learn to lament. With Mary and Martha we learn to wait. In God's community, there is sweet fellowship, even in the hardest of circumstances. Journey in this book with Wendy Alsup through her story of suffering, and more importantly, with the God who walks with us in the wilderness.

What if one of your biggest fears came true? No one expects to outlive their child, yet it happens. How do you think you would get through? A child dies, and then what? This book began with asking God questions, listening for answers, and wanting to have a better understanding of this hard thing. It contains letters written to God (with responses), journal entries, and letters written by others who wanted to share in the collective struggle of one family's heartbreak, and how they got through. Additional thoughts by the author weaves it all together into a story of hope, of faith, and of love.

Underwood shares how the story of Lazarus brought renewed hope during his darkest moments of suffering and doubt in his personal battle with leukemia, bringing to life God's powerful answer to the question of pain and suffering: that Jesus loves and cares for us.

Life is painful. Everyone's story comes with unique challenges, difficulties, bumps, and bruises that leave you lost and drowning in their wake. It could be a financial disaster, a health issue, or the loss of a loved one. Dr. Tony Evans understands life's hardships firsthand. In the span of less than two years, he lost his brother, sister, brother-in-law, two nieces, father, and wife. At the same time, both of his daughters received cancer diagnoses. Dr. Evans had to put into practice, at the deepest levels, the truths he has preached about God for more than 40 years.

In Hopeful Sorrow, Julie Busler shares her journey through childhood trauma, emotional neglect, and grief, showing that turning from childhood wounds to God in hope begins with turning toward them in sorrow. Through the biblical practice of lament–bringing honest pain and questions to God–she demonstrates how acknowledging sorrow can lead to hope, resilience, and renewed faith.

Katherine Clark was just an average wife and mother with two young children when she was in a tragic playground accident in late May 2009. A little boy playing on the jungle gym jumped and landed on Kate’s head, knocking her over and snapping her neck. Kate was paralyzed from the neck down. The doctors diagnosed her with quadriplegia and said she would never walk again. This terrifying prognosis could have been the end of the story. But instead, God chose to work a profound miracle in Kate’s life and in the life of her family.

What do we do with the disruption, disorientation, and devastation of loss? How do we survive unpredictable grief, ongoing suffering, and the questions about God that happen in the dark nights of our lives? In What We Find in the Dark, author and pastor Aubrey Sampson writes through the illness and death of her best friend, offering raw, real, and fought-for spiritual wisdom and practical insights for loss, grief, and doubt. What We Find in the Dark not only helps us locate ourselves on the journey of loss but gives honesty, hope, and direction for what’s ahead.

When the World Stops is a timely yet timeless message for God's people that provides practical tools for not only weathering this current crisis, but emerging from it with a strengthened faith and deeper appreciation for the things that matter most. Like a reassuring hand on your shoulder, Dr. Michael L. Brown helps point the way forward for those seeking answers to questions like: Is this pandemic the final plague talked about in the Book of Revelation?

No matter what the circumstances, death shakes us to the core. It seems so wrong, and it is! We long for comfort, but we don't know where to look. Can God really help when we are overwhelmed with grief? With compassion and biblical wisdom, Paul David Tripp shows us how to think and what to do when death enters our door in CCEFs Grief: Finding Hope Again.