Book Review: Be Still, My Soul by Nancy Guthrie

My wife & I recently had our first child about 8 weeks ago.  What an amazing experience it was!  Getting to see our little boy for the first time melted my heart, and I was instantly in love.  Soon after that moment, reality struck.  Misha was exhausted from the delivery, yet we had doctors flooding in and out of the hospital room.  Then, there was the realization that our boy has to eat every 2 to 2.5 hours, which correlates into little sleep for Mom and Dad.  On top of that, Misha had some complications after the delivery, which were pretty scary for us.  If you would have asked my wife & I what a trials or suffering would look like in our lives, we probably would have said the death of a loved one or something like that.  Never in a million years would we have thought that suffering could come through such a joyous occasion.  Needless to say, through the birth of our first son, Davin, we had come face-to-face with a trial.

Yet, by the kind providence of God, I had just received Be Still, My Soul by Nancy Guthrie from Crossway on trials & suffering not 3 days before Davin was born.  It has proved to be one of the many things that helped us fully put our trust in God through the entire trial, knowing that this small and momentary affliction was given to us for our good and His glory.

Be Still, My Soul is a unique book.  Through the deaths of two of her children, the author is deeply acquainted with suffering.  As a result, Mrs. Guthrie has taken 25 different excerpts from classic and contemporary works alike on suffering that have helped her trust God in the midst of her many trials and combined them together into this one book.  The lineup of authors is outstanding!!  John Piper, Charles Spurgeon, Tim Keller, Jonathan Edwards, D.A. Carson, Martin Luther, & Joni Eareckson Tada just to name a few.  This book is a gold mine of Christian wisdom & counseling for those who are suffering. 

I wish I had time to share with you all of the quotes that affected & helped my wife and I during our own trials, but if I did that, I might be sharing half the book!  Therefore, I'll leave you with five.

"When suffering sandblasts us to the core, the true stuff of which we are made is revealed.  Suffering lobs a hand grenade into our self-centeredness, blasting our soul bare, so we can be better bonded to the Savior.  Our afflictions help to make us holy."  - Joni Eareckson Tada

"God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves."  - Joni Eareckson Tada

"Is not some of the pain and sorrow in this life meant to make us homesick for heaven, to detach us from this world, to prepare us for heaven, to draw our attention to himself, and away from the world of merely physical things?"  - Don Carson

"We derive no profit at all from affliction - neither grace nor glory - until there is wrestling and exercise."  - Thomas Manton

"The deepest need that you and I have in weakness and adversity is not quick relief, but the well-grounded confidence that what is happening to us is part of the greatest purpose of God in the universe - the glorification of the grace and power of his Son - the grace and power that bore him to the cross and kept his there until the work of love was done."  - John Piper

If you are in the midst of much suffering, or are wanting to prepare for suffering, or are wondering what in the world God's purpose of such suffering could possibly be, or are trying to respond humbly in trials, this book is for you.  I cannot think of someone who should not read this book.

Buy it here.

Nancy Guthrie is also the author of Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, and Hearing Jesus Speak Into Your Sorrow.  All well worth your time!