Spiritual Grief

For Christians, eternity with Jesus is an exciting promise that many long to see fulfilled. But many wonder what is so wonderful about heaven. In a 50-day devotional journey, Randy Alcorn reveals Biblical teachings on what life will be like in heaven. Throughout this journey, the listener will learn and meditate upon the promises, rewards and expectations, as found in scripture, that a believer in Christ will enjoy for all eternity.

Immigrant daughter, novice chaplain, bereaved friend: author Chenxing Han (Be the Refuge) takes us on a pilgrimage through the wilds of grief and laughter, pain and impermanence, reconnecting us to both the heartache and inexplicable brightness of being human.

If you've ever been given empty clichés during challenging times, you know how painful it can feel to be misunderstood by well-meaning people. Far too often, it seems the response we get to our hurt and disappointment is to suck it up or pray it away. But Scripture reveals a God who meets us where we are, not where we pretend to be.

Timeless encouragement for the challenges of life. Derek Prince, one of the 20th century's most trusted Bible teachers, invites you to face some of your most difficult circumstances head-on with hope. In Why Bad Things Happen to God's People, Prince shares timeless truths from the Book of Job that will keep you anchored during any storm.

When Colin Campbell’s two teenage children were killed by a drunk driver, Campbell was thrown headlong into a grief so deep he felt he might lose his mind. He found much of the common wisdom about coping with loss—including the ideas that grieving is a private and mysterious process and that the pain is so great that “there are no words”—to be unhelpful. Drawing on what he learned from his own journey, Campbell offers an alternative path for processing pain that is active and vocal and truly honors loved ones lost.

Join Nancy Guthrie in discovering why emptiness has never been, and never will be, a problem to God. As Nancy pulls back the curtain on God’s work to fill up emptiness as revealed throughout the Bible, you’ll experience chapter after chapter of grace and hope that your emptiness can and will be filled. You’ll begin to see that God really does do His best work with empty - as he fills it with himself.

Standing at a departure gate in Dallas' Love Field, Dave Roever held his recent bride Brenda in his arms and kissed her goodbye. He knew fully the dangers awaiting him in the raging battles in Vietnam, yet he promised the love of his life that he would return to her "without a scar".

In Divine Disruption, Dr. Tony Evans and his children pull back the curtain on their faith-shaking experiences, in order to provide biblical wisdom and practical encouragement for how to deal with the hard, unexpected things we all inevitably face.

When the anticipation of your child’s birth turns into the grief of miscarriage, tubal pregnancy, stillbirth, or early infant death, no words on earth can ease your loss. But there is strength and encouragement in the wisdom of others who have been there and found that God’s comfort is real. Having experienced three miscarriages and the death of an infant son, Kathe Wunnenberg knows the deep anguish of losing a child. Grieving the Child I Never Knew was born from her personal journey through sorrow.

Pregnancy is widely regarded as the most joyful time in a woman's life, but for the mother who has experienced pregnancy loss, a subsequent pregnancy can feel like she's holding her breath and hoping for what she can't control. In Courageously Expecting, Jenny Albers meets women in this difficult season as someone who has also experienced the worst and cautiously hoped for the best. Through the telling of her own story, Scripture, and heartfelt prayer, she encourages you to cling to faith in the face of fear.

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.

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.

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. None of us live free of difficulties or hardships. But how can we learn to live richly in the midst of them? And even grow spiritually because of them? The answer is found in the hopeful humanity of Jesus.

The son of a preacher, 18-year-old Tim Timberlake learned to appreciate the extraordinary value and gift of each minute of every day the hard way through the tragic and sudden loss of his father. Tim began a journey to not just get through each day, but to exhaust every opportunity of potential of that day, moment by moment, fulfilling his God-given purpose. Now a pastor himself, Tim inspires others to approach each day in a way that they live out their own God-given purposes and passions.

Joni Eareckson Tada knows what it means to wrestle with this issue and to wish for a painless solution. For the last 50 years she has been confined to a wheelchair and struggled against her own paralysis. And she sat by the bedside of her dying father, thinking, "So much suffering, why not end it all quickly, painlessly?"" The terminally ill, the elderly, the disabled, the depressed and suicidal, can all be swept up into this movement of self-deliverance. Skip the suffering. Put a quick end to merciless pain and mental anguish. These are tempting enticements to the hurting.

Melissa Zaldivar talks honestly about losing everything that once defined her and how God used unexpected opportunities, like working at Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women, to spark a journey of working through her grief and encountering the all-sufficient love of Christ. Weaving inspiring passages of Scripture and insights from Little Women into her personal story, Melissa encourages listeners with her discovery that it’s when we have nothing left to offer that we can receive God’s love the most. And that’s something that can never be lost.

Dr. Chauncey Crandall knows his patients well. When they are dying, he sits at the bedside with them and holds their hands. He prays with them. Sometimes he can feel what they feel and see what they see. At other times his patients have near-death experiences and "come back" with astonishing descriptions of the afterlife.

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.

Seasons of grief, pain, and loss of control are inevitable. Despite our best efforts and steadfast faith, reality rarely matches our expectations. In an unpredictable and broken world, how do we cling to a foundation that provides purpose for today and hope for the future? In their new book, Beyond Our Control, Michael and Lauren McAfee show us how trusting God brings greater contentment than the illusion of control. With deep and abiding faith, the McAfees draw on their experiences with adoption, infertility, illness, and loss to help readers navigate unexpected circumstances.

When the oldest of Kate Braestrup's four children was 10 years old, her husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident. Stunned and grieving, she decided to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a Unitarian minister. She eventually began working with the Maine Game Warden Service, which conducts the state's search-and-rescue operations when people go missing in the wilderness.