Twenty years ago, Jerry Sittser lost his daughter, wife, and mother in a car accident. He chronicled that tragic experience in A Grace Disguised, a book that has become a classic on the topic of grief and loss.
Now he asks: How do we live meaningfully, even fruitfully, in this world and at the same time long for heaven? How do we respond to the paradox of being a new creature in Christ even though we don't always feel or act like one? How can we trust God is involved in our story when our circumstances seem to say he isn't?
While A Grace Disguised explored how the soul grows through loss, A Grace Revealed brings the story of Sittser's family full circle, revealing God's redeeming work in the midst of circumstances that could easily have destroyed them. As Sittser reminds us, our lives tell a good story after all. A Grace Revealed will helps us understand and trust that God is writing a beautiful story in our own lives.
Loss came suddenly for Jerry Sittser. In an instant, a tragic car accident claimed three generations of his family: his mother, his wife, and his young daughter. While most of us will not experience such a catastrophic loss in our lifetime, all of us will taste it. And we can, if we choose, know as well the grace that transforms it.
A Grace Disguised plumbs the depths of sorrow, whether due to illness, divorce, or the loss of someone we love. The circumstances are not important; what we do with those circumstances is. In coming to the end of ourselves, we can come to the beginning of a new life---one marked by spiritual depth, joy, compassion, and a deeper appreciation of simple blessings.
Practical help for understanding and following God's will for your life
'God has a plan for our lives,' but what does that mean in practical terms? How do we know God's will for important life decisions, like who to marry, what job to take, what church to join? How can we be free if God has a perfect plan for us? Does suffering mean we are off track? How exactly does God speak?
Author Jerry Sittser explores these questions and offers a biblically based approach that is truly liberating. No matter what decisions we've already made, he points out that it is still possible to live out God's perfect will---even if we think we've married the wrong person, chosen the wrong career, or landed in some kind of serious trouble.
This new edition includes study questions designed to help individuals or groups who are faced with decisions---large or small.
Do Our Prayers Really Make a Difference? A beloved husband dies of cancer. A child is kidnapped. A family is shattered by a fatal car accident. We pray for peace and protection in a world that seems to be falling apart. Often we experience or hear about spectacular answers to prayer. But where is God when the cry of our hearts seems to be answered with silence? When God Doesn't Answer Your Prayer explores the mysteries and paradoxes of unanswered prayer. Forged in the fires of his personal quest following his own crushing experience of unanswered prayer, Jerry Sittser offers hard-won spiritual insights that affirm the greatness of God's love and concern for us, even when we do not fully understand why our prayers seem to go unanswered.
