God Is Always with You E-Book

The Team at LifeSupport Resources

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 174

Beschreibung

Watch God transform sorrow into hope. When grief hits and those around you don't know what to say, it's easy to feel alone, to think no one understands, and to even question where God is. Others have walked the journey of grief before. In God Is Always with You, you will read thirty-one real stories of people who have endured loss and trauma. Through the shared wisdom of survivors, Christian mental health professionals, and pastors, you will - encounter hope, healing, and comfort in loss, - discover new ways to walk through pain, and - learn how God is present even in grief.Let these stories remind you that, whatever loss you've experienced, you can find renewed life in God's enduring peace. You are never alone.

Leseprobe

Endorsements

Through heartbreaking, true stories of loss, God Is Always with You reminds us each day that, through godly counsel, the Bible, and prayer, we have access to a divine grace that can sustain us even in our darkest hour. A great resource for anyone who has experienced loss and anyone comforting grieving people.

Matthew S. Stanford, PhD | CEO, Hope and Healing Center & Institute; Author, Madness & Grace: A Practical Guide for Pastoral Care and Serious Mental Illness

Where do you find comfort when your soul has been shattered? When sorrow has splintered your soul, how do you face another day…hour…minute? If you are in a season of pain and anguish, you will find comfort and hope in these pages. Stories provide a lifeline; they connect us, anchor us, and provide us with the oxygen needed to endure. Without question, you will find the solace your soul is longing for right here and right now.

Colleen Swindoll-Thompson | Founder, Reframing Ministries at Insight for Living

No human being is immune to suffering. In the midst, it’s common to ask why? or feel alone and cut off. The stories in this devotional are a light in darkness, illuminated personally by those who have walked along similar pathways. They are not fiction but wisdom gained from real, intense suffering that illustrate a common theme: sufferers are never alone. A God who knows all and understands purposes humans will never fully comprehend is near. The team at LifeSupport delivers impactful stories gleaned from hundreds of interviews. Each day, this devotional brings voices of encouragement to those just beginning or in the midst of their own pilgrimages. Daily, readers can experience powerful ways a God who himself suffered, died, and rose again reveals himself to those he loves.

Glen Bloomstrom | Chaplain (Colonel) US Army, retired; Director, Faith Community Engagement, LivingWorks Education

I remember the night vividly. Sitting on my deck one warm May evening with tears streaming down my face. I’m a “successful” surgeon whose marriage is failing. I was told as a new Christian that divorce is not an option, yet I knew this misery I was living in was no option for me or my son. I called my newfound friend and spiritual mentor, a man of God who once carried guns, was hooked on drugs, and controlled blocks of a city through violence and fear. Through my tears, I choked out my question: “I’m sorry to bother you. I’ve never been shot, stabbed, or in prison like you. But could I ask you about my marriage?” His response was short and revealing. “Tom, pain is pain. Jesus is the doctor you need.” As shown in the piercing stories of this book, brutal pain is real. But even more real is our true healer Christ, who will wipe away every tear.

Tom Blee, MD | Trauma and Acute Care Surgeon; President and CEO, LIFEteam; Author, How to Save a Surgeon: Stories of Impossible Healing

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

God Is Always with You: 31 Days of Hope and Healing for Grief and Loss

Copyright © 2022 5 Stone Media Group

978-1-4245-6418-7 (hardcover)

978-1-4245-6419-4 (e-book)

This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of licensed therapists or physicians. These stories are intended to give comfort to those experiencing grief and loss. You should regularly consult a medical professional in matters relating to your mental and physical health needs.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked GW are taken from GOD’S WORD®, © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of God’s Word Mission Society.

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Cover and interior by Garborg Design Works | garborgdesign.com

Printed in China

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Dedication

This devotional is dedicated to the survivors who generously shared the stories we tell, to the families of those survivors, and to the team of pastors and mental health professionals who advise us.

Contents

Introduction

Section 1

Loss of a Spouse

DAY 1 No Fairy-Tale Ending

DAY 2 Why, God?

DAY 3 From Loss to Hope

DAY 4 Losing a Wife

Section 2

Loss of a Marriage

DAY 5 God’s Steadfast Love

DAY 6 Abused

Section 3

Loss of a Young Child

DAY 7 Hating God’s Plan

DAY 8 Blaming God

DAY 9 Loss and Forgiveness

Section 4

Loss of an Adult Child

DAY 10 The Loss That Never Stops

DAY 11 A Daughter’s Pain, a Mother’s Pain

DAY 12 Grief as a Companion

DAY 13 A Part of Myself Is Gone

Section 5

Loss of Expectations

DAY 14 The Destination Overcomes the Journey

DAY 15 Adopting Mental Illness

DAY 16 From Dream to Nightmare

Section 6

Loss of Innocence

DAY 17 Good from Evil

DAY 18 Only One Label

DAY 19 New Life in Prison

DAY 20 God Took a Felon

DAY 21 God Loves Me No Matter What I’ve Done

DAY 22 Trafficked, Addicted, Children Lost. God Restores

DAY 23 An Unfair Start, a Life of Meaning, Restored for Eternity

Section 7

Loss of Physical Health

DAY 24 An Expert in Suffering

Section 8

Loss of Mental Health

DAY 25 Mad at God

DAY 26 Grief Is Not My Identity

DAY 27 Listening to Her Own Lies

DAY 28 Grieving for Mental Health

DAY 29 Family PTSD

DAY 30 Sharing Attracts Care

DAY 31 Holding On through Depression

About the Authors

Contributors

Introduction

As creators of LifeSupport resources for ministry and the LifeSupport podcast, we’ve had the opportunity to meet and interview dozens of generous survivors who have given us permission to use their stories to help others. These stories illustrate the truth that grief is a universal emotion and that the life of every Christian will include suffering. The idea that someone will be protected from harm because they are a Christian or simply because they pray hard enough is a myth.

God Is Always with You: 31 Days of Hope and Healing for Grief and Loss brings you stories of grief, organized by topic, which share the experiences of real people who have walked through the darkness of loss. Each daily story concludes with wise counsel and biblical insight from mental health professionals and pastors.

If you are in grief today or know someone who is, we have compiled this devotional for you. We hope that you might recognize your own struggle in these pages. We are praying that you will understand that you are not alone in your suffering and that you will find hope and healing as you discover a new way to walk through your pain.

Caution! This devotional contains stories of real people in pain and suffering that may trigger or intensify your own feelings. Finding a path through grief requires support from others. We encourage you to reach out to a local mental health professional or church for care.

Section 1

LOSS OF A SPOUSE

Day 1

NO FAIRY-TALE ENDING

Julie was living her fairy-tale life. She fell in love and married a man with a big smile and a bigger heart. He was a godly man, and he was her best friend. Ken was also handsome and healthy. He was a long-distance runner and was serious about exercise, one of the many things that attracted Julie to him.

When she married Ken, he had two teenage children. Two years later, Ken and Julie welcomed their son, Sam, into their family. Julie’s husband and her kids were her world, and she could not ask for a better life. Every morning she would wake up and go to the kitchen to have her coffee. Sometimes she would just look out the window and think to herself, This is all I’ve ever wanted. This is so amazing.

Smiles, laughter, hugs, and kisses were a daily part of her life. Julie was young and lived in a protective bubble. She felt safe, secure, and loved. That protective bubble was shattered when Julie found out that her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer. By the time Ken was diagnosed, the cancer was already in Stage 4. She was devastated. She wanted Ken to live, and she would do whatever it took.

Julie and her family traveled the country to find help, whether it was a clinical trial or a new miracle drug. They spent the next eighteen months doing whatever they could in hopes of a miracle. Julie truly believed that her husband would be a miracle and that he would have an incredible story to tell after he recovered. However, when they went to the clinical trials, they were turned away. They were told to just go home and be together while they could.

Ken helped Julie discover the power of her own faith because, through his sickness, Ken demonstrated the strength of his faith. He had experienced redemption in Christ years earlier, and his belief fed Julie’s faith throughout the experiences of Ken’s sickness and eventual death. Julie went to God because she had nothing else to go to that could save her or make her feel any better. Julie simply went to her knees and said, “I can’t do this. If you want me to keep doing this or doing life, I need you, and you have to show up. I can’t do this.”

After the eighteen months, the obvious became apparent. Julie kept praying but also had to plan a funeral. Now she finally knew what utter despair and helplessness felt like for the first time in her life.

Ken passed away, and a new, completely different life was in store for Julie, one that she could never have imagined. She was now a widow with three children, and every day was a challenge to navigate, mentally, emotionally, and physically. She experienced different stages of grief, including anger, denial, bargaining, and depression.

Grief seemed like an enemy. However, over time, Julie learned that grief was not something she should fight. Grief was the cost of loving someone who died. It was the cost of living in a fallen world where people die, dreams die, fairness dies, and hope dies. But that brought God’s love out in a bigger way for Julie.

Although she was a Christian and had been active in church, she now was experiencing God’s love in a much different and more profound way. For Julie, her grief and trauma strengthened her relationship with God and strengthened her spiritually. Even though she couldn’t see it early on after Ken died, she soon realized God was grooming her for the next step in her life.

Julie would go on to become a therapist and have her own practice. She also became a hospital chaplain. She now considers it an honor to walk alongside people in deep and dark loss and sorrow. She now uses her story, full of pain and suffering, to show others the power of God and how he was able to help her become an anchor for others who are trying to navigate through their own grief and trauma.

Wise Counsel and Biblical Insight

Allow God to Work in You in Times of Trauma

Christian counselor Tom Colbert says when we become vulnerable during our times of grief, only then can real changes be made in our lives. “If we’re really going to have Christ come into our lives, we have to have a level of vulnerability,” Colbert says. “And that is a really scary thing to people of trauma. But if you create that arena of respect where it’s okay…because someone knows me, someone understands me. Someone has accepted me where I am. And it takes away from being labeled. There’s no label anymore. It’s not you. You’re not a personification of your trauma; you’re a person. And then, amazing things can happen.”

God Uses Our Grief and Pain

Julie went through a very dark time after her husband passed away. She experienced tremendous pain, suffering, and grief. However, looking back now, she can now see that God used Ken’s faith, even his sickness and death to draw her closer to him. She can now see God’s true love and beauty in a world full of sickness, disease, and death. Julie now uses that experience and knowledge to help others who are suffering to see that same love from God she experienced.

God Is Bound to Us

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35 NIV).

PRAYER

Dear Lord, I am grieving the loss of a loved one, and this world now seems so dark, lonely, and lifeless. I know you do not want me to live this way and think these things. Please show me your light of love that I desperately need right now. Amen.

Day 2

WHY, GOD?

Cindy and her husband, Jerry, had a unique marriage, and she was just fine with that. They met when Cindy worked at an elementary school and Jerry was a deputy sheriff with the county. He would visit the school for its Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. They had a fun romance. Cindy had three daughters, and Jerry had no children of his own. They got married, and Jerry treated her daughters like his own. He was a great stepfather. Since Jerry worked in law enforcement, there were times Cindy would go on ride-alongs with him. It was a unique time together that they both enjoyed. Being married to a police officer was a journey for Cindy and her family, but they loved it.

Cindy eventually left her job at the elementary school, and she soon became a staff member at the family’s church and oversaw the church’s addiction recovery ministry. Jerry also volunteered his time to that ministry.

Jerry had seen many things during his time in law enforcement. He had experienced some traumatic things in the field, and over time, that started to take a toll on him mentally. He was diagnosed with PTSD and depression.

One day, Cindy and Jerry were driving to one of their daughter’s houses to see their grandchildren when they were in a head-on collision. Cindy was in worse physical shape than Jerry, but after they recovered from their injuries, it became clear that the accident had more seriously affected Jerry’s mental health. He became a different person; he was haunted by visions of the crash and by other scenes he had witnessed over the years as a deputy. Cindy and Jerry loved their hometown, but after the accident, Jerry felt they would have to move somewhere new. Everywhere he went he would replay horrible memories over and over. When Cindy and her family would drive somewhere, Jerry would have them take a different route to avoid the scene of the accident. Other times, he would express that he could not get the sights and sounds of the accident out of his head. He would just put his hands on his head and say, “What’s going on in my head? I don’t understand. Something’s not right. It’s getting worse, and I can’t understand why this is happening to me.”

Cindy knew she needed to do something to help her husband. She reached out to a couple of treatment facilities. However, since Jerry never abused substances, they turned him away. Jerry was getting sicker and more tormented. Cindy found that he had searched “suicide and your salvation” on his phone. She confronted him about it, but he denied that he had suicidal thoughts.

Cindy and her brother got together to remove all the guns from their home. She now knew that her husband wanted to kill himself, which caused a sickening feeling in her. She got so scared that she reached out to Jerry’s sergeant. He came over to talk to Jerry and decided he needed to go to the hospital. Jerry was admitted for treatment, but once he was released, things continued to get worse.

One morning, Cindy left to go to the chiropractor, and Jerry stayed home. When she returned, she noticed that Jerry wasn’t home, and her heart sank. She couldn’t find him anywhere. Her brother came over and looked around the house, but he had no luck either. Her brother decided to look along a trail in the woods near their home, and that’s where they found Jerry. He had taken his own life.

Cindy and Jerry had been married for twenty years. She never in her wildest dreams could imagine her own husband dying by suicide. The grieving process was long and painful. There were moments of despair after Jerry’s death. Cindy would cry out to God, Why me? Why Jerry? However, Cindy realized that God was in control and had a plan that she did not understand at the time. She didn’t understand why Jerry died and what that meant, but she was going to trust God.

Cindy volunteered as a chaplain for two law enforcement agencies. She used her own experiences to bring more awareness to the effects of the job on the mental health of police officers. She also united more families with husbands and dads who were police officers. She would meet with the wives for coffee and talk about their struggles and issues. Sharing stories together was effective and helpful, both for Cindy and for the other women, to know they were not alone.

Today, Cindy still misses Jerry, but she knows that he is now with God and that his suffering is over. She also knows that ultimately, God has a perfect plan, and she is willing to allow him to use her for his perfect plan, no matter what that entails.

Wise Counsel and Biblical Insight

Trials Will Come, Even More So to Believers

Pastor Paul Johnson says God watches over us no matter what is happening in our lives. “God is watching over these kinds of situations, and the Bible is very clear on that,” Johnson said. “There are trials in life, but Jesus is there with us. God is always with us. God has a plan, and there’s a tremendous future waiting for us as believers.”

God Has a Perfect Plan for Our Lives

Cindy never thought her husband would commit suicide until it actually happened. This turned her life upside down and made her question God at times. Why did God allow this to happen to her? To her husband? Afterward, Cindy realized that God’s plan is still perfect, and beautiful things can happen out of tragedy and trauma.

God Blesses Those Who Persevere

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12 NIV).

PRAYER

Dear Lord, I am experiencing a very difficult trial. I know that you told us these storms would happen in our lives, but I don’t know how I can keep going. Give me the strength to persevere through this time in my life. I trust that you have a perfect plan for me. Amen.

Day 3

FROM LOSS TO HOPE

On Sunday mornings, it was easy to for Kayla to smile while she watched her husband, Andrew, preach. She would always sit in the front pew at church. She loved being a pastor’s wife. Kayla met Andrew in college, and she knew in her heart he was the man of her dreams. They got married young, and they both jumped into ministry. Andrew’s father started a church, and both Kayla and Andrew helped out there with different behind-the-scenes tasks.

For Kayla, she was living her dream life. She had everything she could ever want. She was blessed with three boys. Life was full, and life was busy. Kayla even entertained the idea of writing a devotional, and she shared the idea with her husband. She started a blog, and when Andrew’s father was diagnosed with leukemia and became sick, she began to post some of her thoughts about his struggles. However, her busy life prevented her from really pursuing the idea further, so she put it on hold.