Biblical reflections helping you to have faith and to trust God in hard times.
Life doesn’t always go the way we hoped, and sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we’d like. Challenging circumstances, especially ones with no immediate end in sight, can cause us to question God’s character, his purpose and his ways.
Each of these 20 biblical reflections examines a truth about God and shows how it provides an anchor for the soul in hard times. Author Katie Faris writes with warmth and compassion, weaving in stories of her own family’s struggles with complex medical conditions. She encourages readers to entrust their confusing circumstances and unanswered questions to the Lord and place their hope in his promises. In so doing, they will be sustained in their suffering and enabled to live joyfully and fruitfully, loving and serving God and others, in the midst of their struggles.
This beautiful hardback book will help you if you are going through hard times, or walking alongside those who are. It is also a great gift for a brother or sister in Christ who is struggling.
Introduction
1. Learning to See: God is gracious
2. Sufficient: God goes before us
3. Between Two Gardens: God has a story
4. Thin-Hearted: God is compassionate
5. Pile-on Effect: God is sympathetic
6. Not Driven to Despair: God sets limits to our suffering
7. Rainy Epiphany: God delivers
8. Learning to Pray: God hears our prayers
9. Miracles: God is powerful
10. Even If, Even When: God is trustworthy
… and 10 more
Contributors | Katie Faris, Joni Eareckson Tada |
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ISBN | 9781784987602 |
Format | eBook |
First published | June 2022 |
Language | English |
Publisher | The Good Book Company |
Can we trust that our Father is good, wise, and loving when our circumstances suggest otherwise? Katie Faris encourages us with an emphatic yes. She writes with raw honesty about her own struggles, but wonderfully directs our gaze away from herself to the God who is, and always will be, all we need. This book is a gift—for those who are suffering and for those seeking to love them
Life in this world can be so very hard. And fears about what the hard things in life might do to us can loom large. Through these short meditations and encouragements, Katie Faris serves as a capable and compassionate companion to all who have questions, doubts, and fears brought about by the difficulties of life. Her words are gentle wisdom and helpful guidance toward the truth of who Jesus is to us and what he provides for us in the darkest of times.
He Will Be Enough gently reminds readers of God’s character and helps them hold fast to his promises in the midst of suffering. By providing a pathway for godly lament, Katie Faris brings comfort to the hurting, encouraging them to draw near to the one who keeps them even in their darkest days. This is a rich read for anyone navigating the waters of grief and hardship.
Found this really helpful when times were particularly hard. The different readings every day were encouraging and the Lord God spoke to me though them. Such a joy.
He Will Be Enough is the debut title by pastor's wife and author Katie Faris. In this book, Faris reminds readers that even when their circumstances change, God's character does not. Faris begins the book with a look into the suffering her family endured as they learned that her children had a rare medical condition known as Alpha-1 She details for readers how God was faithful to her family even on their worst days. As I read about how Katie trusted God, my heart was pointed to the goodness of Jesus and I was very encouraged.
An example of this can be found on page 62 where Faris wrote, "Friends, Jesus is sympathetic with us in our weaknesses, especially when those weaknesses are related to temptation and sin. Think about it. There's no doubt or lie that he hasn't heard. There's no struggle that surprises him. There's no hardship outside of his scope. And there's no need to run except to him; no need to hide except in him. Oh, what a Savior! His sympathy calls for a response, and Hebrews 4:16 tells us what this appropriate response is: 'Draw near.'"
He Will Be Enough contains 20 brief chapters so it can be read as a chapter book or even as a devotional. Each chapter concludes with questions that point readers to the Bible and one additional benefit of the questions is that it makes the book an option for reading in a group setting.
In one chapter of the book, Faris shared about a miscarriage she had and I cried when I read that part. As I'm still processing through and healing from mine, I found comfort in Faris' words.
This was one of the most encouraging books I've read in a while and I'm very thankful for Katie ministering to me through it. I'm very much anticipating her forthcoming book, God Is Still Good, in January.
I received He Will Be Enough compliments of The Good Book Company in exchange for my honest review.
Compassionate & encouraging. Katie writes from experience with humility & love.
In this devotional collection, Katie Faris shares meaningful reflections on persevering through suffering. There are twenty different readings, and each one is approximately eight pages long. Faris begins with a story or example from her own life, and then she connects her experiences to a Bible verse about suffering. Each reading ends with a short prayer and some journaling prompts. Throughout the book, she emphasizes God's faithfulness and character, showing how He is compassionate, trustworthy, and at work in the midst of our pain.
However, even though Faris grounds this book in theological truth, her reflections never become abstract or academic. She conveys these truths from within her own life's context, showing how she has personally experienced God's character while navigating the health issues that some of her children have due to a rare genetic disorder. Many elements of this book are very personal, focusing on her family's struggles, and other parts are more general, sharing different examples of what readers might be dealing with. The memoir elements will especially resonate with other parents of children with genetic disorders or other severe health problems, but the book's overall messages apply to all readers, regardless of their circumstances.
"He Will Be Enough: How God Takes You by the Hand Through Your Hardest Days" is a compassionate, encouraging resource for suffering Christians. Katie Faris's vulnerability about her struggles, deep faith in God, and ability to articulate meaningful truths from Scripture can be a great blessing to different readers, and this devotional can help them fix their eyes on God and trust Him in the midst of their pain. This is a platitude-free devotional from someone else in the trenches, and I would especially recommend it to other mothers of children with health issues.
He Will Be Enough by Katie Faris, is an engaging, personal and inspiring book that helps readers to truly understand and know God’s character, that He is enough and He’s all we need. It’s during those difficult times that God can make the impossible possible. He can use what the enemy meant for evil and turn it to good, He can use the situations that we are currently going through for His glory, to help us, to shape and mould us and to make us stronger, to know that He is good, He is faithful and that it’s only through Him that we can find rest, healing and peace from all the world throws at us and tells us.
He Will Be Enough is a wonderful book that will help you through those hard seasons and tough times, whilst diving into scripture to remind us of the promises of God and His truth. Even during the most difficult of days, weeks, months and years, God is enough. With a time for prayer and reflection at the end of each chapter, we can start to bring our thoughts in alignment with God’s, to get straight into scripture and see for ourselves the sure promises of God, to spend that much needed time with Him and to know just how powerful prayer is.
Anyone who has walked through suffering (Katie calls this "whatever your 'hard' is") knows how difficult it can be to put words to that experience. This often leads to or exacerbates our feelings of isolation in the midst of suffering. What stands out to me about He Will Be Enough is the framework it provides for articulating - and thus inviting others into - our experience. Katie does this by example, sharing her story and her reflections in bite-sized morsels in each chapter. She also does this by creating space for reflection at the end of each chapter (this space is set up well either for personal mulling or for guided group discussion). Ultimately, Katie leads her reader in telling his/her story within the context of God's larger story, both of which have yet to be told in full. If you are looking for biblical encouragement as you process a challenging circumstance or season of your life, He Will Be Enough could be a helpful companion on that journey.
From the introduction: "The question I was faced with on that day, and on many days since, was this: Will Jesus be enough, even now? Even when I don't understand? Even when the future I mapped out has been upended? Even ... In the years since that day, I've discovered that the answer to those questions is Yes, Jesus is enough."
We are living in hard days, and this book is an excellent tool for whatever hard situation you are facing, it will draw you in, you will relate to the anecdotes of the author's life, and others that she knows, and it is a huge blessing, as each of the 20 readings points you to a new way that God is present in all of life, and especially the angles of hard.
Each of the chapters focus on who God is in a different relatable aspect. The author shares truth from the Word of God, examples in life, a sample prayer, and ends each reflection with questions to answer, and a scripture to read and consider this aspect of who God is to YOU!
This book is directed to believers, who use the Bible, as a lens of how to see God in all of life, and as our life. If that perspective, isn't one you can embrace or be challenged with this book isn't for you. But for anyone willing to recognize that God is present even today and who needs reminders in those 'soul amnesia' moments we all have, it is for you. Thankful to partner with the Goodbook company and read an early release. It's a book worth owning and sharing with others.
In a world that is harshly black and white or softly gray, Katie brings the objective truth of the Bible into the personal experiences of her own family. But she doesn't interpret the Bible by her experiences, but allows the Bible to interpret her life. But the examples and personal sharing makes the truth relevant, relational, and strengthening rather than just some pronouncements from on high. You will be encouraged to trust God's love even when the understanding of what he is doing may lie beyond the horizon line. I am thankful for this book.
Katie does a superb job of drawing you into her story as she walks through the difficult health diagnosis of her children while seamlessly showing how the truths uncovered can encourage and offer hope to anyone walking through hard times. A fabulous, Christ-centered read for anyone looking for those reminders of hope during their own journey through hard.
This is an absolutely wonderful book. The author very courageously shares her own personal story in a way that points others to the promises of God, to 'anchor the soul' in hard seasons. Highly recommended to all!