Books about suffering

God’s Grace in your Suffering

David Powlison (Crossway, 2018). 127 pp.

Missionaries who want to thrive must learn how to deal with suffering in a godly way. Those who learn to suffer joyfully, trusting our wise and loving heavenly Father, will thrive and draw others to Christ. Powlison, who died in June 2019 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, was a counselor and former director of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. He reminds us that God never promised that life would be safe, easy, peaceful, healthy, and prosperous. We will experience danger, hardship, turmoil, ill health, and loss. God speaks and acts through suffering and affliction. Powlison wants us to anchor our experience more deeply in God’s goodness.

In his book he weaves together Scripture, experience (his and ours), and the hymn “How Firm a Foundation” so that we learn to see God’s grace at work within suffering. He reminds us that God’s answer to our suffering will be better than we could ever imagine because God answers with himself. This book teaches us how God comforts us when we face trouble and pain. Each chapter ends with a section for personal application. Often our initial reaction to suffering is “Why me? Why this? Why now? Why?” Powlison shows how God steps into our suffering and sees us through and carries us even in the most difficult situations. This book on suffering is balm for the soul and will help those in the most trying circumstances to persevere and thrive.

Reviewer rating is 5 of 5 stars ★★★★★

Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

Paul David Tripp (Crossway, 2018). 216 pp.

Tripp, a counselor and speaker, reminds us that suffering is spiritual warfare. He writes to help us “with the war beneath the battle,” to alert us to fight for our own heart and to help us see how the Lord meets us in the battle (p. 46). He deals with different traps we face—fear, envy, doubt, denial, and discouragement. He reminds us of the comfort of God’s grace, his presence, his sovereignty, his purpose, and his people.

The perspective and theology we bring to our suffering shape the way we see and understand it, and the impact suffering has on us. The central battleground of suffering is not physical, financial, situational, or relational. It is the battle of the heart. When fear rules our heart, we don’t see life accurately. Our distorted vision causes us to come to wrong conclusions and make bad decisions. There is hope for all who suffer. That hope is a person and his name is Jesus (p. 208). Tripp shares his own experience of suffering and battles he has faced. This book will help as we fight the traps we face when we suffer.

Reviewer rating is 4 of 5 stars ★★★★☆

Amy Carmichael: Beauty for Ashes

Iain Murray (Banner of Truth, 2015). 168 pp.

Murray has written another vintage biography, this one about Amy Carmichael who spent over 50 years serving in India. She spent her last 20 years in great physical pain after suffering an accident. “The school of suffering became the richest school of her life” (p. 102). She wrote 13 books after her accident, seven on what it meant to live with Christ in all the trials of life. She learned that faith is the key to the Christian’s happiness. Whatever the trials, they are not greater than God’s love. Amy Carmichael is a missionary who learned to thrive in the midst of pain. God’s grace in her life taught her to “accept the unexplainable . . . the delays, the disappointments and reverses” (p.134). Her story will strengthen every reader as she reminds us that the travail of the journey is not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to us.

Reviewer rating is 5 of 5 stars ★★★★★

Further recommended reading on suffering:

• D. A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil (Baker, 2006, 2nd edition)
• Tim Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering (Dutton, 2013)
• John Piper, Lessons from a Hospital Bed (Crossway, 2016)
• Elisabeth Elliot, Suffering is Never for Nothing (B&H Publishing, 2019)