Searching Our Hearts in Difficult Times

‘O that we might advise one another as to what to do; to help one another to recover from our weaknesses!’

Following Jesus is not easy. It involves self-denial, daily cross-bearing, and lifelong obedience. Salvation is promised to the one who ‘endures to the end.’ Christians need much encouragement, especially in ‘difficult times’. This the Lord supplies through pastors who love him and care for his people.

John Owen was such a pastor. One way he sought to help his fellow-believers was to hold occasional meetings for spiritual conference and fellowship at which various topics were addressed and discussed, with Owen providing a concluding summary of the proceedings.

The short chapters in Searching Our Hearts in Difficult Times contain a number of Owen’s talks and sermons on a wide range of subjects which are as relevant to Christians today as they were to believers some three and a half centuries ago.

Abridged and made easy to read.

Content

Preface

Part I: Searching Our Hearts

1. Conviction of sin before conversion
2. Assurance of salvation
3. The sins of our day and age
4. Spiritual backsliding
5. Praying to Christ
6. Applying to Christ for grace
7. Weak faith when praying
8. Prevailing sins
9. Can habitual sin coexist with grace?
10. How may we be delivered from a habit of sin?
11. Days of judgment
12. Preparation for Christ's coming in times of judgment
13. The contest between Christ and Antichrist
14. Christian duty under divine warnings

Part II: Difficult and Dangerous Times

1. The nature of the warning
2. The evil of which they are warned
3. How this evil will be introduced
4. The time and season of it

Applications

Part III: Living By Faith in Difficult Times

The use and advantage of faith:

1. In a time of national adversity
2. In a time of reproaches and persecutions
3. In a time when Roman Catholicism is on the increase
4. In a time when true religion is declining

Endorsement

‘How many people have said to you this year that these are difficult times? COVID-19 alone has produced widespread anxiety which has been coupled with widespread unrest in society, and deep-seated divisions in our political world. What are we to do? Who can draw on deep personal experience of such days to give us wise guidance? John Owen lived in precisely such a time of suffering, of terrible political divisions that cost many lives, of war and of plague. So in Searching our Hearts in Difficult Times we find the voice of Scripture married to a life of deep personal experience to bring us exactly the counsel we need.’
—Sinclair B. Ferguson