Book Review: "Be Still, My Soul: Embracing God’s Purpose and Provision in Suffering", edited by Nancy Guthrie

A friend sent me Be Still, My Soul: Embracing God’s Purpose and Provision in Suffering and I’m so glad she did! Twenty-five short chapters, twenty-five authors, and twenty-five ways to address trials, troubles, and afflictions. Some authors I wasn’t familiar with and some chapters were more pertinent to me, yet every chapter had some meat for me to sink my teeth into and gain some soul-nourishment.

Here some snippets: “All our hurts are temporary (Philip Yancy).” “Suffering lobs a hand-grenade into our self-centeredness, blasting our soul bare, so we can be better bonded to the Savior (Joni Eareckson Tada).” “Suffering must be borne in order for it to pass (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).” “The God we had, we lose, and then it cost so much bitter conflict of soul, before refined and purified in our knowledge of God, we grasp another, and now the only true God in the place thereof (Abraham Kuyper).” “The devil, things, and people being what they are, it is necessary for God to use the hammer, the file, and the furnace in His holy work of preparing a saint for true sainthood (A. W. Tozer).” “Our afflictions reveal our state of mind: when we see outward crosses as the greatest evil, God is not our main happiness (Thomas Manton).” “You do not find one godly man who came out of an affliction worse than when he went into it; though for awhile he was shaken, yet at last he was better for an affliction (Jeremiah Burroughs).”

There’s more, way more, in this little tome to encourage and strengthen your soul if you are going through trials. If someone you know is besieged by afflictions then by all means send them this book. The sweet fellowship of sufferings (Philippians 3:10) we can enjoy from the contributors of Be Still, My Soul will only be surpassed when we meet them in heaven and all will be just as it should be.