Encouragement and Lay Counseling
Showing all 29 results
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When The Hurt Wont Heal
$13.99Add to cartIn a society that emphasizes the importance of good health, those living with constant pain, unending fatigue, depression, or a host of other never-ending physical and mental symptoms struggle to accept the providence of God in their illness and the limitations that illness brings. It’s easy to become so consumed with the physical nature of your illness that you fail to see the most important impact is spiritual.
Svensson knows from personal experience how hard it is to navigate the spiritual, emotional, and relational challenges that arise when living with an ongoing ailment. He shares what he’s learned about God’s comfort and care through his struggles. If you are navigating life with chronic illness, When the Hurt Won’t Heal will help you find the path to growing in faith despite the pain, fear, or darkness you may be experiencing.
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When Parents Feel Like Failures
$13.99Add to cartParents often struggle with four deeply distressing emotions: fear, guilt, shame, and regret. Many parents feel resigned to the fact that these emotions will always just be a part of our experience. But Lauren Whitman, a counselor and mother, helps parents see Jesus’s compassion and receive the comfort he offers them in their distress.
While many resources help parents grow in how they parent, few help parents with addressing feelings about unrealistic expectations, perceived mistakes, and supposed failings. When Parents Feel Like Failures is an encouraging, grace-centered book that helps us see ourselves and the Lord more accurately.
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Im Stressed : A Path From Pressure To Peace
$13.99Add to cartThe pressures and demands of life can leave us overwhelmed, discouraged, or burned out. Stress affects all of life, including physical, relational, and spiritual health. But God does not want us to white-knuckle our way through life–he intends for us to thrive as his beloved children, remembering his care and walking in his strength.
Eliza offers readers the NEAR (notice, explore, address, remember) plan for stress management and a way forward to move from stress to hope. In I’m Stressed, she gives biblical and actionable direction on how to alleviate stress in ways that honor God, bless those around us, and help us to live in peace.
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Struggling With Body Image
$13.99Add to cartEveryone has a body image, and whether from society’s influence or age-related changes, most people battle a negative one. In a world with confusing messages about the body and social media’s promotion of unattainable standards for thinness or muscularity, it’s difficult to think well about our bodies. Greer, a counselor and fitness trainer with a firsthand understanding of body image struggles, helps readers reject negative messages and embrace a biblical vision for thinking about our bodies.
Because our bodies matter to God, it’s important that his Word, not the world we live in, informs how we view our physical selves. Struggling with Body Image helps believers develop a biblical understanding of the body that is foundational for a God-honoring body image.
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I Prayed And Nothing Changed
$13.99Add to cartSte Casey addresses the disappointment that comes when life seems to go from bad to worse despite our fervent prayers for change.
When pain and disappointment shrink our world to the size of what’s troubling us, we can easily miss what’s right in front of us-our God and his daily grace. Pastor and counselor Ste Casey reminds readers that although our worries, fears, and suffering can fill our mind’s eye, the truth is that God is still watching, keeping, caring, hearing, and speaking to us.
I Prayed and Nothing Changed will challenge you to be honest as you talk to God about your struggles in our messed-up world. Casey points readers to see all that God is doing, even when he seems distant, and encourages readers with specific ways we can see God at work in the silence.
*Practical, accessible, spiritual guidance on disappointment with prayer written by a pastor and experienced counselor.
*Part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series, walking readers through their deepest and most profound questions.
*Gives readers the tools to understand their struggle with waiting on change and how the gospel brings hope and healing.
*Compact format goes deeper than New Growth Press’s popular minibooks without overwhelming the reader.
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Grieving With Hope
$6.25Add to cartAre you facing a great loss? Perhaps a loved one or close friend has died. Great love brings great sorrow, and healthy sorrow recognizes the immensity of loss. But when death and loss come close, the temptation toward despair and hopelessness is often not far behind.
Author Randy Alcorn encourages you to go to God with all your sorrows and to remember that Jesus, your Good Shepherd, walks with you-a suffering Savior who is well acquainted with sorrow. No one can bypass grief, but you don’t walk this dark valley alone. Jesus will lead you, and he guarantees that death is not the end and Heaven awaits. In Grieving with Hope, Randy gives perspective and practical advice to help readers on the grieving journey, so that in time, your grief will be accompanied by joy and hope.
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Postpartum Depression : Hope For A Hard Season
$6.25Add to cartMany new mothers experience what some call postpartum “baby blues”-a short period of feeling sad, irritable, anxious, and overwhelmed. But what happens when those feelings worsen as the newborn weeks go by? What help is there for you when sleepless nights, harassing thoughts, and unpredictable moods disrupt your life and drain your joy? Is there any hope to be had in such a hard season?
Biblical counselor and mom Christine Chappell knows the difficulty of suffering through postpartum depression. With empathetic care, she offers you biblical encouragement and practical counsel that addresses the many facets of this affliction-including your exhausted body, your overwhelming emotions, your troubled mind, and your burdened spirit. As you read, you’ll be guided through prayers that help you to engage your fears and doubts with the Good Shepherd. Even in this unwelcome darkness, God in his steadfast love will meet and sustain you.
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Filled With Dread
$6.25Add to cartDo you ever get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach in anticipation of something you don’t want to face? This sense of foreboding and apprehension is called dread. It could be about an upcoming life change, a conflict to resolve, a difficult task, or a looming diagnosis, but whatever the situation is, you wish you could avoid it at all costs.
Experienced counselor Jayne V. Clark explains that instead of being filled with alarm or trying to run away from hardship, we can face dread by faith. Jesus, who experienced the ultimate dread of the cross, shows us how to turn to our Father in heaven and trust his good purposes for us. We can walk securely in his peace because he is fighting for us and walks with us every step of the way.
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Persevering Power : Encouragement For When You’re Oppressed By Life
$18.00Add to cartLife is filled with challenges. We might be weary and overwhelmed by the world around us. Whether we are facing personal struggles or working against unjust circumstances, it can feel like the odds are against us. Does God care? How can we carry on?
There is hope for us because God is a God of justice who cares for people in distress. Bruce Strom shows how those facing difficulties can receive God’s power to persevere. By looking to God’s perspective and purpose, we can find direction for what God has in store for us. He transforms our understanding of the past and gives us resources to renew our souls and find fresh strength to continue on. Strom shares how God has been active in his life and in others’, encouraging us with examples of how lives can change and things can be different.
If you’re running on empty and are tired from the fight, discover the persevering power God has for you.
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My Spouse Was Unfaithful
$13.99Add to cartHow should you respond to the devastating disappointments that adultery and other forms of betrayal have brought into your marriage? It’s natural to feel a wide range of emotions, including anger, confusion, grief, sadness, jealousy, anxiety, embarrassment, and regret. The consequences of your spouse’s sin cast wide effects on your relationship, family, and future. Counselor Robert D. Jones has walked with many couples in your situation and provides ten steps for moving forward from this betrayal with God-given hope.
My Spouse Was Unfaithful provides biblical principles for handling this betrayal and confronting your spouse, and it offers a guide for working through a potential repentance and restoration process. While God doesn’t promise restoration with your spouse, he does promise to be with you and help you–whether your spouse chooses to repent or not. God can use this experience to draw you closer to him and bring greater good to your life.
*Practical, accessible, spiritual guidance on how to move forward from your spouse’s betrayal with God-given hope.
*Part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series, walking readers through their deepest and most profound questions.
*Gives readers guidance in understanding so they can learn to lament and guard against bitterness, vengeance, and rash decisions.
*Compact format goes deeper than New Growth Press’s popular minibooks without overwhelming the reader.
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Someone I Know Is Grieving
$13.99Add to cartBestselling author and counselor Edward T. Welch walks readers through the difficult task of coming alongside grieving people with genuine compassion and humility.
When someone is grieving, it can be hard to know what to say or do. We want to be helpful, not hurtful, but it’s easy to go wrong. The good news is that we can learn to approach those who are grieving with the same compassion that Jesus shows us when we are grieving. It starts with humility and listening well and expands into practical support as the Spirit leads us.
In Someone I Know Is Grieving, Edward T. Welch leans on his many years of counseling grieving people to help readers learn from their compassionate Savior how to respond to people’s sadness and hard times without advice or trying to “fix it,” but to instead hear their story, learn from others’ experiences, and depend on the Spirit for wisdom for what to say and do.
*Practical, accessible, spiritual guidance on responding with compassion to another person’s troubles written by an experienced counselor
*Part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series, walking readers through their deepest and most profound questions
*Gives readers the tools to avoid common mistakes made in responding to grieving people and a wise and kind way forward that expresses the love of God. Compact format goes deeper than New Growth Press’s popular minibooks without overwhelming the reader
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I Have PTSD
$13.99Add to cartAnyone who experiences a traumatic event feels confused, lost, out of control, unsure, and unsteady–disoriented. This kind of suffering leaves marks, sometimes on the body, always on the soul, and sometimes both. In I Have PTSD, Curtis Solomon helps both those who have suffered trauma, as well as their loved ones, to understand the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects of trauma, while offering gospel hope and practical ways to make that hope real in their lives.
Trauma can come into our lives through any number of circumstances, but those circumstances do not derail the plans of God nor determine the trajectory for the rest of your life. God can and does utilize the most horrific suffering imaginable to accomplish his great plans for his people.
*Practical, accessible, and concise guidance on PTSD, written by an experienced trauma expert and counselor.
*Part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series, walking readers through their deepest and most profound questions.
*Gives readers the tools to understand their struggle with PTSD and how the gospel brings hope and healing to post traumatic stress.
*Compact format goes deeper than New Growth Press’s popular minibooks without overwhelming the reader.
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Moving Forward After Abortion
$13.99Add to cartEven though each woman’s story is different, the challenges that follow an abortion can be similar. How can you find healing and renewal for where you are now? How do you process the variety of emotions you may be experiencing, such as anger, grief, or perhaps numbness?
Camille Cates has spent many years counseling women, helping them to answer those questions. In Moving Forward after Abortion, she helps you to see that God is forgiving, gracious, merciful, and loving, and offers comfort to those who come to him to experience restoration instead of brokenness. Reflecting on an abortion story can be intimidating, but you do not have to do it alone. God is near–and plans to use your story for good.
*Practical, accessible, spiritual guidance on addressing an array of situations and emotions after an abortion, through the lens of Scripture.
*Part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series, walking readers through their deepest and most profound questions.
*Gives readers guidance in understanding the forgiveness of Christ in a deeper, fuller way.
*Compact format goes deeper than New Growth Press’s popular minibooks without overwhelming the reader.
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Hem Of His Garment
$17.99Add to cartHope for When the Pain Won’t Quit
Everyone experiences pain at times. It can manifest physically, emotionally, relationally, or spiritually. It can follow tragic accidents, great loss, sudden betrayal, or unexpected and unwanted change. Often it is temporary. But what do you do when it isn’t? When the pain just won’t go away, when healing does not come, when the grief and hurt settle in?
Drawing on her own experience of chronic pain and her years as a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, Dr. Michelle Bengtson provides a countercultural perspective on pain. Offering hope without any false promises or empty platitudes, Dr. Bengtson unwraps the complex emotional aspects of dealing with pain. She gives you permission to question God, helps you identify the lies you’ve believed about your pain, and reorients your perception based on the truth of God’s Word. Each chapter ends with a recommended playlist, reflection questions, and a prayer.
Your pain may not change, but your experience of it can.
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When Faith Meets Therapy
$19.99Add to cartNow available in trade paper!
The power of faith intersects with the practicality of counseling in this unique partnership of a faith/worship leader and a therapist as they offer a pathway for readers to find help, hope, healing, and freedom while navigating life’s struggles.
No one is immune from life’s difficulties, yet many people are reluctant to talk about mental health or seek professional help when they are struggling. People of faith who are battling issues such as anxiety, depression, life changes, stress, or relationship problems may suffer in silence, believing things would get better if only their faith was stronger, they prayed more, or if they had more self-discipline. The stigma about needing to seek help is all too real.
But seeking professional help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign that someone is serious about moving forward emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. Written by producer, artist, and author Anthony Evans, along with licensed psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser, When Faith Meets Therapy:
*Dispels the cultural myths and stigmas that surround professional therapy
*Shares stories from the authors’ personal experiences and others who are facing life’s challenges
*Provides practical steps that readers can take in the pursuit of emotional, relational, and spiritual progress
Anthony and Stacy met five years ago when Anthony was seeking emotional and relational healing of his own. Stacy led Anthony through his own process of internal renovation and remains his personal therapist to this day.
When Faith Meets Therapy contains priceless, practical knowledge to break stereotypes that surround therapy, all while offering immeasurable hope and encouragement.
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I Have A Psychiatric Diagnosis
$13.99Add to cartA psychiatric diagnosis can be heavy burden–for you or someone you love. These struggles can be life-dominating. But we know this: God is not silent when his people struggle. What does God say? Experienced counselor and best-selling author, Edward T. Welch helps you answer that crucial question by exploring how God’s Word speaks in ways that can help you find wisdom, rest, and hope in Jesus, even with a psychiatric diagnosis.
What do you do when you recognize yourself or someone you love in descriptions like OCD, “bipolar disorder,” “borderline personality disorder”? The DSM can give you a detailed description, but what next? We listen to God and to his people.
I Have a Psychiatric Diagnosis will guide readers in listening to God who has compassion for those who are struggling in these painful ways. Listening to God in the Bible reshapes psychological descriptions and functions as a corrective lens that opens our eyes. As you listen to Scripture and God’s people, you will understand the struggles of those with a psychiatric diagnosis better and will be able to receive and offer words of help and hope. Welch includes case studies on panic attacks, PTSD, depression, and narcissism to aid in practical application to your situation.
I Have a Psychiatric Diagnosis is part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series. This series walks readers through their deepest and most profound questions. Each question is unpacked by an experienced counselor that gives readers the tools to understand their struggle and how the gospel brings hope and healing to the problem they are facing.
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Anxious About Decisions
$13.99Add to cartDo you get anxious when you have to make a decision? Do you overthink, overtalk, and overanalyze? When anxiety surrounds every decision, the result can be decision-making paralysis. Counselor Michael Gembola explores this common struggle and then points to the peace that comes from knowing God as your refuge and ever present help in trouble. Learning to trust God, even when the path is not clear, will give you courage to move forward one step at a time.
When you’re faced with decisions both big and small, God offers you something better than certainty and the absence of risk. He promises to be with you. And when you allow the Good Shepherd to lead, you will find that he uses times of decision-making to make you more peaceful and become a better steward of the opportunities in front of you.
Anxious About Decisions will help you learn to approach decisions more confidently with a conscience shaped by God’s Word and values shaped by God’s heart. Learn to undertake decisions in the context of the community of believers and your identity as God’s child.
Anxious About Decisions is part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series. This series walks readers through their deepest and most profound questions. Each question is unpacked by an experienced counselor that gives readers the tools to understand their struggle and how the gospel brings hope and healing to the problem they are facing.
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Angry With God
$13.99Add to cartNo one gets mad at God for something small. When we’re angry with God, it is because we’ve faced something immensely hard. Anger is an often-overlooked part of grieving, and as such, is an appropriate response to profoundly painful events. Counselor Brad Hambrick provides a guided process to being honest with God about your pain to restore and deepen your relationship with him. While we are often prone to interpret our anger about intense suffering as being at God, this book is an invitation to process these intense emotions with God as a source of comfort who is sturdy enough to support these turbulent emotions.
If you are struggling with deep grief that is accompanied with anger and confusion, Angry with God will be profoundly helpful in your journey. Hambrick will patiently walk you through the process of being honest with God (and others) about your pain. You will learn how to articulate your pain, alleviate the effects of this pain, contextualize your experience in light of the gospel, and begin to hope again. God is a good shepherd who is patient and willing to move at the pace of his sheep. God can be trusted in places that merit the name the valley of the shadow of death.
Angry with God is part of the Ask the Christian Counselor series. This series walks readers through their deepest and most profound questions. Each question is unpacked by an experienced counselor that gives readers the tools to understand their struggle and how the gospel brings hope and healing to the problem they are facing.
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When Faith Meets Therapy
$24.99Add to cartThe power of faith intersects with the practicality of counseling in this unique partnership of a faith/worship leader and a therapist as they offer a pathway for readers to find help, hope, healing, and freedom while navigating life’s struggles.
No one is immune from life’s difficulties, yet many people are reluctant to talk about mental health or seek professional help when they are struggling. People of faith who are battling issues such as anxiety, depression, life changes, stress, or relationship problems may suffer in silence, believing things will get better if only their faith was stronger, they prayed more, or they had more self-discipline. The stigma about needing to seek help is all too real.
But seeking professional help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign that someone is serious about moving forward emotionally, relationally, and spiritually. Written by producer, artist, and author Anthony Evans, along with licensed psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser, When Faith Meets Therapy:
*dispels the cultural myths and stigmas that surround professional therapy;
*shares stories from the authors’ personal experiences and from others who are facing life’s challenges; and
*provides practical steps that readers can take in the pursuit of emotional, relational, and spiritual progress.
Anthony and Stacy met five years ago when he was seeking emotional and relational healing of his own. Stacy led Anthony through a process of internal renovation and continues as his personal therapist.
When Faith Meets Therapy contains priceless, practical knowledge to break stereotypes that surround therapy while also offering immeasurable hope and encouragement.
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Have You Felt Like Giving Up Lately
$9.97Add to cartWe all experience times of sadness, trial, and pain. But what happens when grief and depression seem so overwhelming that we feel like simply giving up? This encouraging book from bestselling author and longtime pastor David Wilkerson shows you how to trust God to bring you through hard times, wait on God’s answers to prayer, lay down your guilt, and much more.
Only God can heal your wounds. With powerful true stories and wisdom drawn from a lifetime of ministering to hurting people, Wilkerson gently guides you in giving your troubles over to God, believing that he will work miracles in your life.
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Helping Children With Body Image
$6.25Add to cartThe world is streaming messages to children about what makes them valuable. Children learn early from TV, media, friends, and classmates that if they don’t have the right size, weight, strength, and appearance, something is wrong with them.
Children struggling with shame or discomfort about their bodies feel tremendous pain. They don’t feel normal or accepted, and their world is often cruel and judgmental. Counselor Jocelyn Wallace helps parents and caregivers give comfort to children who are hurting and confused about the false messages they have believed about their bodies. By unpacking the truths of Scripture, parents can help children see and understand the character of their loving Creator God, who designed them with care and accepts them unconditionally. As they turn to Christ in their struggle, they can be comforted by his care and love and even learn to reach out in love to others who are struggling.
The struggle to live in a world that places such heavy emphasis on outward beauty and strength will not disappear, but its damaging messages can be better discerned and rejected in the context of a relationship with God that is genuine and never faltering.
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How To Love Difficult Parents
$6.25Add to cartWe are used to having our parents help us, but how do we handle it when the tables are turned and our parents are the ones who need help? Declining health, financial needs, divorce, relational issues-what’s an adult child’s role when their parents are struggling? Or when there is conflict with them because of differing lifestyles and parenting philosophies?
Counselor Jim Newheiser understands the many types of challenges adults may face in their relationship with their parents, whether it be their parents’ financial strain, a struggle to properly care for their home or their health, conflict related to care for the grandchildren, or destructive relational choices. He helps readers understand their responsibility to honor their parents, and to be prepared to help with their needs, but also to recognize their first responsibility to their relationship with the Lord and their own marriage and children. He also gives guidance on what offenses to graciously overlook and what offenses to handle with gentleness and love. Ultimately, there may be some bad situations that are out of your control, but you can always be a loving representative of the Lord in how you respond.
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Helping A Hurting Friend
$6.25Add to cartIf you have been in a dark or desperate place, you already know that the best kind of friend sits with your pain and listens. What does it take to be a compassionate, helping friend when those you love are struggling? A godly friend with a heart to help, a listening ear, and a love for God’s Word can be a profound help to a friend in need.
Counselor Garret Higbee helps concerned friends embrace the idea of counseling in community and unpacks how members of the body of Christ can more effectively come alongside one another and carry each other’s burdens. He encourages us to develop the skills of patient listening and drawing out the heart before offering any words of guidance.
Love is not only for times when it is easy but is especially needed when times are hard. When we might want to judge harshly or run away from a person’s pain or sin, a Christian friend will instead move toward the person, encouraging them sincerely, challenging them compassionately when needed, and restoring them gently to Christ.
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Children And Trauma
$6.25Add to cartChildren can experience trauma from a variety of experiences, including neglect, physical, sexual, or psychological abuse, death of a loved one, bullying, racial trauma, and more. Trauma occurs when children are exposed to an experience perceived as threatening or harmful and respond with intense fear that affects them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Authors Justin and Lindsey Holcomb help parents and caregivers recognize the signs of trauma and guide them in stepping into children’s lives and demonstrating Jesus’s care and protection for them. The compassionate and helpful response of parents or caregivers can help children who have experienced trauma to access spiritual, emotional, and physical healing.
Helping children feel connected and loved, giving them opportunities to express what they’re feeling, providing any necessary professional care, and being patient with behavioral outbursts will all go a long way toward helping children heal. Knowing that God sees, cares for, and understands their suffering will help a traumatized child move forward in their healing. Reminding them that one day all pain and suffering will cease can help turn their minds away from anxiety about future trauma and toward promised future peace and joy.
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Disability : Quick Reference Guide What To Day And Do How To Help
$3.99Add to cartDisabilities can come in all shapes and sizes, but many people dont know what to say or do to support a friend that is newly affected by a disability. This 20-panel pamphlet equips readers to care for and encourage those adjusting to a new way of life. The pamphlet includes a simple overview on how to care for those with disabilities and struggles the newly disabled are likely to experience. A Quick Tips section covers things to avoid saying and suggested further resources, and this resource equips readers with biblical wisdom and practical, time-tested advice from Joni Eareckson Tada. The Help a Friend pamphlet series focuses on the first response by a caring friend to bad news about a loved one. Friends gain the confidence to reach out rather than avoid, equipped with biblical wisdom and practical, time-tested advice from Joni Eareckson Tada.
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Wheres My Miracle Pamphlet
$4.99Add to cartWhere’s My Miracle?
What to do when God doesn’t heal youNothing can describe the horror of hearing doctors say, “You will never walk or use your hands again.”
Or – “You have cancer. I’m afraid it’s terminal.”
Like many people, you look to the Lord and pray for healing. You have friends and the pastor pray for you, but nothing happens. You read Scripture and claim the promises. You even have someone anoint you with oil or go to a healing crusade. But God doesn’t give you your miracle.
You confess every possible sin and search your heart for any unconfessed sin. Your faith is strong and you tell everyone you will be healed, yet nothing seems to happen.
You feel that God is playing a cruel joke or start to blame yourself for a lack of faith.
And that’s a shame when Christians feel that way…
The truth is that God certainly can heal and sometimes does heal people in a miraculous way. But the Bible does not teach that he will always heal those who come to him in faith.
The big question is:
What does the Bible REALLY teach about healing?The key is to understand God’s ultimate goal for your life. You need to-
*Find joy in knowing God’s priorities for your life.
*Know the comfort of the biblical promises.
*Enthusiastically embrace God’s will for your life.You can find the joy of serving God despite unanswered prayer in this 14-page pamphlet. In just 30 minutes or less, you will unlock the door to a new attitude toward life.
The topic of unanswered prayer is an issue that author, Joni Eareckson Tada, can speak to personally: A diving accident in 1967, when she was 17, left her a quadriplegic. She has lived 45 years in a wheelchair and she has experienced her share of ups and downs. “But,” she says, “oh, the difference the grace of God has made in my life.”Let Joni tell you her secrets to peace and joy, despite her wheelchair. She has spent decades studying the Word of God. She knows that God does not enjoy seeing your pain and frustration. He has compassion for you and gives you many ways to deal with life so that you can have peace.
She has taken her most important insights on turning unanswered prayer into a life of joy (not anxiety) and has encapsulated them into this 14-page pamphlet. Whether you or a loved one is suffering. This pamphlet will bring you some help to break free from the strangle hold of fear and worry when God doesn’t seem to answer.
In this pamphlet, you will find hope. Joni tells her sto
