Description

Some believers feel guilty when they grieve because they know that they should rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4). Others use grief as an occasion to say, like Job, “God hath overthrown me” (Job 19:6). Yet there is a better and more biblical path to follow. Using Lamentations 3:1–39 as a guide, Ryan M. McGraw furnishes readers with the necessary tools to grieve in a sanctified way and exercise faith under hardship. Come and learn to express rather than repress your grief as you walk through sorrows with Christ by faith.

Contents

Five Biblical Ways to Express Grief

          God’s Displeasure

          Hard Providences

          Unanswered Prayer

          Persecution and Hardship

          Confessing Our Weakness

          How Should We Grieve?

Exercising Faith Under Hardship

          Turn Our Grief into Prayer

          Confront Our Grief with Meditation

          Be Humbled under Grief

          How Should We Grieve through Faith in Christ?

What About When I Lose a Loved one in Christ?

          Christ Is Near to Us in Our Grief

          Death Is from the Lord

          Grieve Rather than Stifle Grief

          Do Not Be Alone

Series Description

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said that what the church needs to do most all is “to begin herself to live the Christian life. If she did that, men and women would be crowding into our buildings. They would say, ‘What is the secret of this?’” As Christians, one of our greatest needs is for the Spirit of God to cultivate biblical godliness in us in order to put the beauty of Christ on display through us, all to the glory of the triune God. With this goal in mind, this series of booklets treats matters vital to Christian experience at a basic level. Each booklet addresses a specific question in order to inform the mind, warm the affections, and transform the whole person by the Spirit’s grace, so that the church may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

Endorsement

“One of the great challenges of our Christian generation is knowing how to lament and grieve in a godly manner. Contemporary Christianity seems to have imbibed much of the atmosphere of this age in which lament and grief are shunned like the plague. This new booklet by Ryan McGraw is thus a Godsend, for he paints for us from God's holy words the color and shape of holy lament and godly sorrow and why they are such a vital part of Christian discipleship in what our Puritan forbears termed this ‘vale of tears.’” — Michael A. G. Haykin, chair and professor of church history, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky

About the Author

Ryan M. McGraw is pastor of First Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sunnyvale, California; research  associate, University of the Free State; and adjunct professor of systematic theology, Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.