Customer Reviews

Dont Waste Your Sorrows: Finding God's Purpose in the Midst of Pain

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4 star:		(1)
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When you keep asking God why, this book will provide some possible answers to your whys.

Of all the books given me when my son unexpectedly died this was the most meaningful and helpful.

This was one of the required reading books for my YWAM discipleship school. It was a refreshing change from the missionary biographies and books on Christianity written for 6th-graders that were our other required reading. It was a challenging new perspective on the role of suffering in our Christian lives and in the eternal scheme of life. It's almost strange how challenging it was, because I found it to be biblically and theologically sound and well backed-up. While, like any idea, it should be wrestled with rather than swallowed whole, it has really changed my perspective and given me new ideas to wrestle with and a new angle with which to process life's cirumstances.

The main premise of the book, from what I gathered, is the idea that life is meant to prepare us to reign with God, as the Bride of Christ, and suffering and pain is a means to form character and maturity in us. Suffering can either make us bitter and hardened, or it can make us soft and humble and deepen our hearts to love more fully.

Worth reading.

"Don't Waste Your Sorrows" by Paul Billheimer helps the Christian focus on God's eternal purposes for the reasons we suffer in this present world. The main point appears to be that God uses our suffering to better prepare ourselves for eternity with Him.

Among the other points covered include:

1. Why we suffer.

2. Let God use our suffering to break and teach us to love Him and others - break out of our self-centered way of life.

3. Learning to love others as Christ loves us (Agape love).

4. Learning Agape love through: family relationships, wrongful suffering, life's failures, and aging.

The book is around 125 pages may be easily read in 2-3 sittings.

A good and encouraging read. Recommended.

I was first introduced to this book when going through (what turned out to be a 4 year loss) of 3 of my children. I had already read "Destined for the Throne" and loved it, so this author was already familiar to me.

I read this book like it was fresh water in the middle of a scorching desert. I will never forget how Jesus lifted me and carried me those 4 years. I still had 2 children and a husband remaining at home. Through the Word in this book, I was able to rise up and be the wife and mother needed to comfort those remaining ... it set a precedent for my life - this is a training ground!

I am now 65 years old, a minister for 33 years, and I still have it on the end table in my living room. I refer back to it often, as the focal point of my ministry now, is counseling people in crisis. I just re-read the first page of the preface and it was as if I'd never read it before - still fresh, clear and flowing like a river! So very powerful!

Hence, I highly recommend both "Don't Waste Your Sorrows" and "Destined for the Throne."