Lord of Endurance and Encouragement, The: Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

This book presents a God-centered perspective on suffering and prepares us to be good students in God’s school of suffering. By focusing our attention on Jesus Christ, it shows how knowing Him and His sufferings illuminates and sustains us in our own. It also draws lessons from biblical examples of suffering saints and mines the riches of the Reformed divines on the topic. It closes by showing how the God of patience and consolation strengthens weary pilgrims in hope and with a longing for heaven. In the darkest of times, believers are reminded that their hearts can be satisfied by nothing less than the infinite God.

200 pages.

“Living as we do between Genesis 3 and Revelation 22, sorrow and suffering are universal human experiences. This book describes such experiences but, far better, interprets them in the light of Christ's work. It is steeped in Scripture, grounded in sound doctrine, and consistent with Reformed theology. It will inform, comfort, and encourage all who read it.”

—Tim Challies, author of Seasons of Sorrow

“Another book about suffering? Yes and no. It’s not just ‘another’ book about suffering but one etched in the realities of the Christian life written from the experience of the godly. Paul’s first lesson that he learned following his first missionary journey was ‘we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22). What have the saints learned from ‘much tribulation’? The consolations of God! Paul again: ‘For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ’ (2 Cor. 1:5). Deeply experiential, eminently practical, soul refreshing, these essays will prove of enormous value. Not just another book about suffering—this is top shelf and worth careful reading. You will be blessed, I promise you.”

—Derek W. H. Thomas, author of Strength for the Weary

“Imagine for a moment sitting comfortably with a half dozen Christian men who have been walking with God for decades, deeply experienced in the workings of His providence in both trouble and in joy, listening intently while they speak humbly, one by one, of what they have learned from their pilgrimage of finding peace when passing through dark, deep valleys and also how they have ministered to other needy disciples of Jesus Christ. If you can envisage that scene and wish you had been an eavesdropper during such golden hours, then this book will be your blessed experience as you savor what these servants of God with their understanding, observations, and advice will share with you as you read these helpful chapters on God’s fatherly sovereignty in relation to your suffering.”

—Geoffrey Thomas, author of Knowing the Cross