Spiritual Pain

Shame controls far too many of us. But look at Jesus through the lens of shame, and see how the marginalized and worthless are his favorites and become his people. God cares for the shamed. Through Jesus you are covered, adopted, cleansed, and healed. Shame Interrupted is a perfect book if you are feeling left out or marginalized because it will help you understand that all Christians are loved by God. You'll learn that through faith there is nothing to be ashamed about, and you should celebrate your differences.

It's unnerving, isn't it? When our faith feels ungrounded, untethered . . . unreal. When our certainty is adrift, as though an undercurrent has pulled us away from shore into the deep, into the darkness. And if this is you—if you're in a dark night of the soul—please know that you are not alone. (And you are not as far away from safety as you may feel or fear.) The night is not your enemy. In fact, the night is necessary. Revered author, speaker, and mentor Dr. Alicia Britt Chole offers a groundbreaking perspective that reveals spiritual disillusionment as an unexpected friend.

For months, thousands around the globe prayed for a miraculous healing for Beni, beloved wife of pastor Bill Johnson, that never came. At Bethel Church, a global outpost of revival known for its signs and wonders, her passing thundered through the community like an avalanche in the valley.

Jabez came to a point in his life where he chose to make a break from his past identity to change his future. He was not a total failure, nor a total success. He knew greater blessings were available if he could break through the pain. Pain deforms our identity and steals our resolve to live a dream of more. Pain can be instructive to learning as well as corrective to undesirable behavior, but it also confiscates honor from the core of our identity that is essential for living a purposeful destiny. When our dreams encounter pain, unbelief mocks us, our future, and our faith.

Do you sometimes feel as though your body is a problem to solve? Discover how to make it part of the solution instead. It’s now known that the emotional and relational pain we’ve lived through has a profound negative physical effect on our bodies. Alisa Keeton, popular fitness professional, proposes that the reverse is also true: What we do with our bodies can have a dramatic positive effect on our emotions, relationships, and our connection with God.

Life is often messy. We hear people say, “My life is a mess,” or “This situation is a mess.” What they mean is that life has become difficult, painful or confusing. But God never promised us a trouble-free life. In fact, His Word tells us to expect the opposite. In John 16:33, Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (NIV). In Blessed in the Mess, beloved Bible teacher Joyce Meyer shows us how to be blessed in the midst of life’s most challenging circumstances.

This Too Shall Last offers an antidote to our cultural idolatry of effort and ease. Through personal story and insights from neuroscience and theology, Ramsey invites us to let our tears become lenses of the wonder that before God ever rescues us, he stands in solidarity with us. We are all mid-story in circumstances we did not choose, wondering when our hard things will end and where grace will come if they don’t. We don't need to make suffering a before-and-after story.

What will you do when the unthinkable happens in your life? Her parents called her Lenya Lion because of her ferocious personality and hair that had been wild and manelike since birth. But they never expected that five days before Christmas, their five-year-old daughter would suddenly go to heaven after an asthma attack. How do you walk out of an emergency room without your daughter?

In Free to Thrive, Josh McDowell and Ben Bennett blend hard-won wisdom and youthful energy to present biblical, time-tested, and research-supported principles for overcoming hurts, struggles, and hindrances to a whole life - a life of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness instead of brokenness - the kind of life you were born to live.

Pain is NOT the end of your story. Katie Souza was a career criminal, and after being convicted of a number of felonies, she was sent to federal prison to serve almost 12 years. While serving what would be her final prison sentence, Katie encountered God in a way that dramatically changed her life. She immediately became an outspoken advocate for Jesus, and her infectious love for him caused many women inside her cell block to accept him as their savior.

Trauma, abuse, childhood wounds, and toxic relationships have broken us. But there is no shame in brokenness. In fact, it’s in our brokenness where the healing power of Jesus comes to find us. Brave Enough to Be Broken is a biblical road map you can use to heal from the pain, the shame, and the regrets that have tried to steal your joy, so you can rest in the unconditional love, healing, and hope of Jesus.

In this eloquent account of her current struggle with physical pain, Joni Eareckson Tada offers her perspective on divine healing, God’s purposes, and what it means to live with joy. Over four decades ago, a diving accident left Joni a quadriplegic. Today, she faces a new battle: unrelenting pain. The ongoing urgency of this season in her life has caused Joni to return to foundational questions about suffering and God’s will.

Ed and Lisa Young, pastors of Fellowship Church, know the kind of grief that no one should have to suffer—the death of a child. With deep vulnerability, they tell the story of their family's journey through sorrow and anger to hope and healing after the tragic and sudden loss of their daughter. In A Path Through Pain, the Youngs will offer you a language and a voice to speak about your pain and a way to see that you don't walk this path alone. They'll walk you through concrete ways that daily acts of faith can restore your hope in the faithfulness and power of Jesus Christ.

Frederick Buechner has grappled with the nature of pain, grief, and grace ever since his father committed suicide when Buechner was a young boy. He continued that search as a father when his daughter struggled with anorexia. In this essential collection of essays, including one never before published, Frederick Buechner finds that the God who might seem so silent is ever near. He writes about what it means to be a steward of our pain, and about this grace from God that seems arbitrary and yet draws us to his holiness and care.

We all long for a life worth living. So when we receive news of a frightening diagnosis, suffer heartbreaking loss in our family life, or get trapped in a cycle of our own sin, we might wonder about God. Where is he when we need him most? With wisdom from Isaiah 57:15, Good News at Rock Bottom helps listeners discover that Jesus is hard to find in the comfortable lives we prefer. Instead, he meets us at rock bottom—where he is waiting for us with open arms.

When your child has reached (or long since passed) the point of independence, it's difficult to know what your "help" as a parent should look like. Following her best-selling book Setting Boundaries®with Your Adult Children, Allison Bottke offers an in-depth guide to help you connect with your adult child and to build your confidence, knowledge, and hope, as your child walks through challenging situations. Learn how to develop effective strategies to truly help your adult child - without sacrificing your sanity.

In her new book, Toni Collier shares how we can have hope in the midst of our most difficult days when we let others in. Opening up about her own experiences of walking through heartbreak, betrayal, and suffering, she shows us the importance of being vulnerable and allowing others to come alongside us as we heal—instead of trying to do it on our own—and gives us practical advice for how to actually heal.

There is a place in God where pain and peace are co-located. Reconciliation happens when we allow the healing power of God to erase our reasons to stay stuck, which fuel our resistance to seeking help. Faith creates the space for healing release. A hurt that has not been dealt with has no timeframe for healing. Your healing journey begins today.

When your loved one's life is wracked by illness, your life changes too. This honest, deeply personal book helps listeners to biblically process their own upended lives, relationships, and spiritual walk.

In this book are sensitive lessons from a walk with pain. Amy Carmichael writes from experience with illness on how to follow God in the midst of struggle. However Gold by Moonlight is not for the ill only. Rather, it is for all who walk in difficult places or who are caught in any.