Hope in anxious world, six truths for things feel overwhelming!
Whether mildly, moderately or severely, feeling anxious is something most of us experience at some point in our lives. At its core, it’s a fear—a sense of worry or tension—about what is or what might occur, but it’s not one that helps. It drags us down—it doesn’t enable us to thrive—and it leaves us unequipped for the day ahead.
This short, sympathetic and warm book will help both Christian and non-Christian readers understand anxiety better, learn some useful techniques to cope with it and, most importantly, show how the living God can liberate us from its grip.
Whether you are used to reading about God or not even sure if he really exists (or if he cares about your anxiety in any meaningful way), this book has precious words of encouragement for you.
“As you read, it is my prayer that you will come to see real hope and take the first few steps in a lifetime of change.” Helen Thorne, author.
Ideal for giving away to those who are feeling anxious—whether Christian or non-Christian.
Author Helen Thorne
Globally, we’ve never been more anxious. Statistics for those seeking help for anxiety are rising rapidly and countless more individuals battle day after day feeling isolated and alone. Maybe you’re one of them.
If so, then this timely and helpful book on anxiety is for you. Writing both to those desperately seeking peace for themselves and for those seeking to help others, Chartered psychologist and experienced counsellor Catherine Haddow speaks truth to calm our fearful minds and hearts.
Catherine helps us to understand how anxiety operates in our bodies at a physical and spiritual level. She then unpacks how the treasure of the gospel can alter our experience of anxiety, pointing to how God’s promises penetrate our struggles.
There is another better way to contend with our anxieties. Ultimately, deep and lasting peace can be found, not in a process, but in the person of Jesus who meets us in our fear and brokenness.
Author Catherine Haddow
If God is All-powerful, Why Doesn’t He Eliminate My Anxiety?
Instead of asking this, perhaps we should ask why God is allowing it in the first place. Join pastor and biblical counsellor Josh Weidmann on a journey through Scripture and his own vulnerable stories of discovering God’s ultimate purpose in pain. The End of Anxiety is designed for individuals or small groups; each chapter begins with Scripture and finishes with practical steps you can apply for immediate relief. Your anxiety, fear, stress, and panic are not the end of you–but facing them could be the start of something great!
Author Josh Weidmann
Our emotions are powerful. We experience them so tangibly that they can often feel all-consuming. At one time or another, we will all have experienced what Catherine Haddow calls ‘tears, fears and sneers’ — those darker, harder emotions. We often don’t know what to do with them. Sometimes we feel helplessly controlled by them, unable to see anything other than the emotion. At other times, we try and hide them from others and from God.
In this book, you’ll see that our emotions are vitally important as they are ‘spiritual smoke alarms’ that can alert us to the state of our heart. Catherine presents her own ’TCH’ model which, when followed, helps us to understand our thoughts, emotions and behaviours in more detail, each providing vital information about the compelling desires, flowing from our hearts. She then helps us to apply biblical wisdom to where we’re struggling, inviting God to change and transform us from the heart of the emotion — the core of our being.
Author Catherine Haddow
Our emotions are complex. Some of us seem able to ignore our feelings, while others feel controlled by them. But most of us would admit that we don’t always know what to do with how we feel.
The Bible teaches us that our emotions are an indispensable part of what makes us human–and play a crucial role in our relationships with God and others. Exploring how God designed emotions for our good, this book shows us how to properly engage with our emotions–even the more difficult ones like fear, anger, shame, guilt, and sorrow–so we can better understand what they reveal about our hearts and handle them wisely in everyday moments.
Authors J Alister Groves and Winston Smith
Good and Angry, a groundbreaking book from David Powlison, shows readers how anger is more than a problem to solve. Anger is our complex human response to what we perceive as wrong in a complex world, thus we must learn how to fruitfully and honestly deal with it.
Powlison undertakes an in-depth exploration of the roots of anger, moral judgment, and righteous response by looking in a surprising place: God’s own anger.
Good and Angry examines God’s desire for justice and his anger, which doesn’t devolve into manipulation. Rather, God’s anger is good and redemptive, and it causes him to step into our world to make wrongs right, sending his own Son to die so we can be reconciled.
In this book full of practical and biblical help, Powlison sets readers on a path toward a faithful and fruitful expression of anger, in which we return good for evil and redeem wrongs. Powlison investigates how God is our model for change and our power for change.
Author David Powlison
Christians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot—and rightly so—on what Jesus has done to appease God’s wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures? This book draws us
to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as “gentle and lowly in heart,” longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God’s deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering. These chapters take us into the depths of Christ’s very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners, comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.
Author Dane Ortland
It’s easy to see God’s grace when things are going well. But in the midst of suffering—when we don’t sense any positive change in our circumstances on the horizon—we can start to question God’s goodness.
Exploring the biblical truths found in each stanza of the classic hymn “How Firm a Foundation,” experienced biblical counsellor David Powlison invites us to hear God’s perspective and see God’s purpose in our suffering. Rather than offering abstract theory or mere sentimentality, Powlison writes to anchor our hope in the God who promises to be with us and transform us in the midst of even our darkest trials.
Author David Powlison
She’s seen slave dungeons in Ghana. Genocide in Rwanda. Systemic sexual abuse in Brazil. Child abuse and domestic violence in the US. After forty years of counseling abuse survivors around the world, Dr. Diane Langberg, a world renowned trauma expert, remains certain that what trauma destroys, Christ can and does restore. This book will convince you, too, of the healing heart of God.
But it’s not a fast process, instead much patience is required from family, friends, and counselors as they wisely and respectfully help victims unpack their traumatic suffering through talking, tears, and time. And it’s not a process that can be separated from the work of God in both a counselor and counselee. Dr. Langberg calls all of those who wish to help sufferers to model Jesus’s sacrificial love and care in how they listen, love, and guide. The heart of God is revealed to sufferers as they grow to understand the cross of Christ and how their God came to this earth and experienced such severe suffering that he too is well-acquainted with grief. The cross of Christ is the lens that transforms and redeems traumatic suffering and its aftermath, not only for the sufferer, but it also transforms those who walk with the suffering. This book will be a great help to anyone who loves, listens to, and seeks to help someone impacted by trauma and abuse. There is no quick fix, but there is the hope for healing through the love of God in Christ.
Author Diane Langberg
Revolutionise the way you deal with the mentally ill in your congregation and community – you don’t need to be an expert to make a difference
Author- Alan Thomas
She couldn’t believe it. There she was with her medical qualifications sitting on the floor of a mental hospital. She’d offered her life to God, wanted to serve him anywhere, but no, surely not this… Sharon Hastings is absolutely passionate about helping anyone who suffers from ‘severe and enduring mental illness’ (SEMI): schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. She wants the church to know all about these illnesses: how they devastate ordinary people and how they need to be treated. By telling her story, warts and all, showing her own tortuous, painful journey, she equips us to come alongside loved ones, fellow church members, friends and neighbours, understanding the social and spiritual ramifications of their illnesses, including them in our activities (where appropriate) and encouraging their spiritual growth. A natural storyteller, the author draws us in. We journey with her. With wisdom, kindness and the heart of a bruised survivor, she interweaves her exceptional story with vital teaching which simply cannot be ignored by anyone within the church today.
Author Sharon Hastings
Drawing from theological reflection on the lives of 30 Christians with severe mental health challenges, (depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia), leading disability theologian John Swinton contends that mental health problems require theological understanding and not just medical intervention. In fact, he argues, it is not necessary to care effectively for Christians experiencing severe mental illness to grasp the theological dimensions of such experiences. Therapy and pharmacology may be helpful, but on their own they are deeply inadequate. By listening carefully to the lived experiences of people with severe mental health problems, Finding Jesus in the Storm will open up new understandings and perspectives that challenge current assumptions and draws out fresh perspectives for care, healing, recovery and community. It is a book about people instead of symptoms, description instead of diagnosis, and lifegiving hope for everyone in the midst of the storm.
Author John Swinton
Looking away from despair towards hope can feel risky. What if God doesn’t come through for you? What if you don’t feel instantly better? Instead of offering simple platitudes or unrealistic cure-all formulas, Edward T. Welch addresses the complex nature of depression with compassion and insight, applying the rich treasures of the gospel, and giving fresh hope to those who struggle. Originally published as Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, this new edition is updated with added content.
Author Edward T Welch
Christians should have the answers, shouldn’t they? Depression affects many people both personally and through the ones we love. Here Zack Eswine draws from C.H Spurgeon, ‘the Prince of Preachers’ experience to encourage us. What Spurgeon found in his darkness can serve as a light in our own darkness. Zack Eswine brings you here, not a self–help guide, rather ‘a handwritten note of one who wishes you well.’
Author Zack Eswine
”It is utterly crucial that in our darkness we affirm the wise, strong hand of God to hold us, even when we have no strength to hold him.” John Piper
Even the most faithful, focused Christians can encounter periods of depression and spiritual darkness when joy seems to stay just out of reach. It can happen because of sin, satanic assault, distressing circumstances, or hereditary and other physical causes. In ‘When the Darkness Will Not Lift’, John Piper aims to give some comfort and guidance to those experiencing spiritual darkness.
Readers will gain insight into the physical side of depression and spiritual darkness, what it means to wait on the Lord in a time of darkness, how unconfessed sin can clog our joy, and how to minister to others who are living without light. Piper uses real–life examples and sensitive narrative to show readers abundant reason to hope that God will pull them out of the pit of despair and into the light once again.
Author John Piper
Child Proof provides biblical insight and encouragement for readers who want to parent by faith. Julie Lowe uses Scripture and biblical wisdom to teach parents how to know their children and specifically love them with the love of Christ.
Author Julie Lowe
When your child is anxious, it’s easy to get anxious too. You want to help your child regain a sense of peace and safety, but how can you? This world is big and scary and sometimes our worries get big too.
Julie Lowe, a skilled family counsellor with more than twenty years of experience, guides parents in assessing their child’s anxiety and gives practical ways to encourage and help worried children. She leads parents away from quick fixes that contribute to dependencies and points them to Christ, the One who is always available, loving, and powerful.
Author Julie Lowe
If you have an angry child you are most likely worn out, confused, and looking for answers to questions like these:
“How can I restore sanity to this chaos?”
“How can I prevent these anger storms in my child?”
“Why does this rage seem to explode from out of nowhere?”
Dr. Michael R. Emlet offers you needed help by explaining both the deeper heart issues and possible physical weaknesses that can fuel a child’s angry explosions. Then, using his experience as a doctor, counselor, and parent, he applies the truths of the Bible to your child’s struggles with anger and outlines practical strategies for helping your child learn self–control
Author Michael R Emlet
For years, biblical counsellor Darby Strickland has served women in oppressive marriages. Now she writes to anyone who wants to help, regardless of their level of experience. You will learn how to identify the toxic entitlement that drives abusive behaviour and to better understand its impact on victims—including children who are raised in a home with domestic abuse. Ultimately, you will become equipped to provide wise and Christ-centered counsel and to empower and advocate for victims while navigating the complex dynamics of oppression in a marriage.
Author Darby Strickland
Scriptural orientation and practical hints that enable us to encourage people to live lives free from manipulation and pain. Tragically, the police receive a call about domestic abuse every minute. This is a hidden and terrifying phenomenon, sadly prevalent in churches as well as the wider community. Spouses, partners, parents and (older) children are the perpetrators. The aim is to bring victims to a place of freedom, peace and hope. There is a way out and they can find real hope in Christ.
Author Helen Thorne