God’s Design for Suffering

Rochelle Zieman

Description

Through the author’s life experiences, this book helps Christians apply spiritual practices to their season of suffering, offering encouragement and guidance.
Throughout her life, author Rochelle Zieman has suffered because of unfortunate events. During that time, she’s learned a lot about the Lord and a lot about suffering, understanding how God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. We can’t work our way through a situation without God’s help.
In God’s Design for Suffering, she shares her story against the backdrop of her experiences, telling how God helped her face these trials. Zieman reveals how he gave her, and gives all of us, spiritual practices to live out when we’re suffering and when we’re not.
With songs, poems, and prayers included, God’s Design for Suffering teaches what suffering is and what to do in its seasons such as prayer, reading the Bible, giving thanks, seeking help from other Christians, worship, and changing the way we think. Zieman communicates that times of suffering teach lessons that present opportunities to love others and love the Lord more deeply.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Personal Growth
• Inspirational
• Religious
• Philosophie et théologie
• God
• Suffering

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 29 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664278240
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

GOD’S DESIGN for SUFFERING
 

How Spiritual Practices Help Us in Our Suffering

 
 
 
 
ROCHELLE ZIEMAN
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Rochelle Zieman.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Interior Image Credit: Andrea Henriquez
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7823-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7825-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7824-0 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022917074
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 12/27/2022
 
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 taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
 
Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
 
Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
 
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.
 
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
CONTENTS
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1 . The Elephant in the Room: Let’s Talk about Suffering
2 . Different Types of Suffering in the Bible
3 . Understanding It’s Part of God’s Sovereign Plan
4 . Inside Out
5 . Beholding the God We Cannot See
Part 1 : Spiritual Practices to Help You Through
6 . Prayer
7 . Fasting
8 . Worship
9 . Bible Reading
10 . Serving
Part 2 : Helpful Things to Practice
11 . Gratitude
12 . Think upon These Things
13 . Seek Support from Others
Part 3 : True Stories and the Second Greatest News
14 . Using Your Umbrella: True Stories
15 . The Second Greatest News
Epilogue
Songs from the Heart
Since the Day I Surrendered
Oh God, You Have Not Forgotten About Me
Only You Are Holy
Jesus Calling (The Song)
Grace
I’m Not Worthy
Why Would God Set His Love on Me?
Come Lord Jesus, Come (Have Your Way)
A Prayer Song
Poems and Prayers
My Heart’s Desire
The Cross I Have
God, You Saved Me
Blood of Forgiveness
Precious Cornerstone
Dare I Say I Love You, Lord?
 
References
DEDICATION
First Bilingual Baptist Church—It is amazing what the Lord can do in an individual. To have love for people who aren’t your biological family yet care for them as so is a testament to God and what He did for us through Christ. It is because we are reconciled to Him and abide in His Son that we can genuinely love one another. The deeper I get to know and love Christ, the deeper I get to know the meaning of loving you. My love for you is not perfect, and neither is yours for me, but I have experienced your love through many seasons of suffering, and I thank God for you. This book is for you, to express my love and gratitude, and to encourage you to keep the faith. This is my way of serving you.
The Lord bless you.
Jesus Christ:
Because you suffered well on my behalf and never lost sight of your purpose on earth. You minimize the vision of my earthly sufferings by maximizing the view of what my reward for persevering will be, you.
I love you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I give my love and thanks to my parents, who contributed to the making of this book. Thank you for always loving me and believing in me. I thank all those vulnerable enough to share parts of their lives in this book to encourage others and glorify God.
I thank Pastor Luis, who read some of my manuscript. His help in looking for clear errors outside the lines of theology was helpful. He helped me be clear by questioning some of my points whether they aligned with his perspective or not, and for that I’m grateful. I thank his wife, Veronica, and their three children for their patience while he helped.
Andrea, I appreciate you for illustrating my book. You are greatly talented, and I look forward to seeing more of your work in the artistic world. Keep using your gifts as you have here for the glory of God.
I give a special thanks to the team at WestBow Press. From the beginning, they’ve been willing to answer my every question in a timely manner and make the process of getting this book published easy.
PREFACE
I wish I could paint a good picture of myself, but I cannot. The greatest thing about me is Jesus Christ, and that’s good news; what Christ can do to change a life is solely His work, and it’s the only thing I have to boast about since He changed mine.
I am not something to be made much of. Christ is the only one to be made much of because He is holy and I come nowhere close to being perfect. Do I strive for holiness? Yes. Will I achieve complete holiness this side of heaven? No. But I move forward with one goal in mind and one reward in focus, Christ. I leave behind my sin and the sins committed against me because it was part of God’s plan to save me from the path I was on, and it is now His plan to use it to further His kingdom. I am clay in the potter’s hand, not damaged or broken goods, and He is doing a good work in me, in all of us.
My love for Christ has grown to a place it would not have been if He hadn’t shown me I needed forgiveness for my sins. I now know the gospel and have come to understand it in its entirety and especially the concept of grace. “Twas grace that taught my heart to fear” 1 the Lord. I believe this to be so because before, my mouth would say one thing, confess Christ, but my heart would say another. My walk with God is different from what it was before; it is much more Christ centered and gospel centered now rather than me centered. I now live for His honor and desire to flee from sin and seek sanctification. I’ve seen the transformation that grace has brought into my life. Grace has allowed me to forgive, fight sin, repent, and love others.
I know that who I am today is all because of Jesus Christ, who deserves all the glory, and I know that any shame the enemy tries to make me feel about my life has been removed by Christ and the grace He offers. Christ is not ashamed to call me His. Believers should know that His grace covers them and that He loves us enough to not be ashamed of us. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because Christ is not ashamed of me.
As I have suffered over the years due to unfortunate events and wrongs committed against me, health issues, and some of my decisions, I have learned a lot about the Lord and a lot about suffering. I’ve learned that people understand God does not give us more than we can handle.
We cannot will or work our way through a situation without God’s help. Many go through things they can’t handle, and I think life wasn’t meant to be handled by us apart from God. “I need your help right now, God, to help me get through this!” I think we were meant to depend on God in surrender in all areas at all times while taking up our armor to fight our battles. He can act on our behalf in the good and even when all we see is negativity. He also gives us the