Just Be Honest How to Worship through Tears and Pray without Pretending PB
| Product Details | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Good Book Company |
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| ISBN | 9781784988951 |
Suffering often causes deep spiritual agony. You might be left thinking, “Where is God? Why is he allowing this? Why doesn’t he do something?” And then guilt whispers to your soul, “Am I allowed to say these things? Shouldn’t I trust God without hesitation? Am I just a faithless Christian?”
This honest, warm and personal book shows us that we don’t need to wrap up our stories of suffering with lessons and silver linings or suppress our pain. Being honest with God, and with others, about our heartache is not only “allowed” but encouraged in the Scriptures. In fact, lament is authorised by God as an act of worship.
Weaving in his own story of pain and loss with biblical reflections, Clint Watkins shows us how lament is permitted by Jesus, shaped by Scripture, fuelled by grace and filled with hope. And when we lament as communities through worship and testimony, we minister hope to a hurting world.
Learn how to pray without pretending by sharing your hurts with God. As you draw near to the Father, experience genuine hope and joy amid grief and pain.
A great gift for Christians who are suffering and a useful resource for church leaders and others who are walking alongside them.
Clint Watkins is a missionary to college students.
Clint Watkins
Clint is a missionary to college students serving with DiscipleMakers, a campus ministry based in Pennsylvania. Having suffered the devastating loss of two babies, he writes to help fellow sufferers find hope through the gospel and being honest with the Lord. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his wife Jillian and their third child, Conley.
Contents
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Introduction: Hurting with God
Part 1: Being Honest with God
1. Strong Faith Struggles
2. Jesus Wept and Wrestled
3. Learning to Lament
4. Groaning without Grumbling
5. Sorrowful Yet Rejoicing
Part 2: Being Honest with Each Other
6. Weep Together
7. Let Others In
8. Bear Their Burdens
Conclusion: Hurting with Hope
David Mathis
“Our God can handle periods on the ends of our sentences of pain. ‘I’m devastated.’ ‘We’re reeling.’ ‘Honestly, I’m really struggling.’ He feels no anxiety to immediately relieve the tension. He is not too fragile for our faith to be fragile. Yet some of us feel the pressure to leave no more than commas, if we leave room for any pause at all. Meanwhile the spirit of our age evokes complaining, wallowing, and unbelief. How might we learn to lament faithfully, as Christians? Clint Watkins has suffered deeply, thought deeply, and knows the deep, deep love of Jesus. Let him share his scarred and recovering soul— and his scarred and majestic consoling King. Jesus does not commend doubt but calls and welcomes us to bring it to him. He gives not only joy in place of pain, but joy deeper than pain in the midst of it. He is a king who can handle your periods, your pauses, and your process.”
J. Alasdair Groves
“Just Be Honest is a rare treasure: a book on suffering I would actually dare to give someone in the midst of their pain. Heartwrenchingly honest about how faith is no stranger to deep pain and how Scripture refuses to oversimplify the struggle with anguish in our souls, this book will connect to the Lord hearts shattered by countless griefs by teaching the piercing, soul-sustaining path of lament.”
Peter Greer
Clint helps readers discover a legacy of lament that allows us to hope through heartache and trust through tears. Clint has known loss that cannot be assuaged by Christian platitudes, yet he writes beautifully of the consolation he found when he broke his silence with Jesus, the one ‘acquainted with grief.’
