An excellent book for guidance when facing difficulties.

Desperate for Hope

Hanging on and Finding God during Life's Hardest Times

by Bruce W. Martin

There are times when we feel we are caught in the perfect storm with everything that can go wrong going wrong at one time. But these times of testing are God allowing us to be perfected rather than protecting us from the storms of life. But when we are in the midst of our storms we ask "Why?"

Sometimes the storms we find our-self caught up in is one of our own making because we made an unwise choice. Jonah is an example of this reasoning. Instead of going to Nineveh Jonah went another direction and found himself in the midst of a storm and then a very large fish. When we make wrong decisions God disciplines us because He loves us! Sin has consequences but God continues to love us.

Sometimes we get caught in the in cross winds of bad decisions and sins made by someone else but we still have to pay the consequences. But this a chance for God to prepare us for something else that is coming into our life. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and accused of a crime he didn't commit. But God used these times to strengthen Joseph and to prepare him for the role he would soon hold in Egypt. But Joseph didn't allow himself to be embittered by his storm, he weathered it and he forgave those who put him in the storm's path.

Life happens and we are not responsible for the trouble that comes our way. Sickness. An accident. Job loss. Sometimes we never can point to an exact cause for our troubles they just develop. Other times there is a spiritual factor to our troubles, Satan is waging war against us and he is stirring up a storm to trouble us and to turn us away from God.

God and Satan use the same situations in our lives to try to achieve different results in our lives. God is perfecting us and Satan is enticing us. Don't allow the unanswered "Whys" in your life to erode your trust in God.

Having a relationship with God does not protect us from the storms of life, but it to strengthen our relationship with Him. Job was greatly tested by Satan and provides us with a look at the spiritual issues we can face. Satan wants to test us, to drive us from God and salvation, but we must cry out to God to strengthen us.

When life doesn't go the way we expected, we draw back from God. When the worst happens we pull into ourselves and try to push God out. We want safety and stability and we are unsure if we can get this from God. We avoid praising or worshiping God for what He has done for us because He let pain or loss into our lives. But this is when we most need God and when our witness can be most powerful as others watch us weather our storms. In the midst of our storms if we can still worship God through our sorrow we know that our soul is on the right path.

Life can always get worse, just look at Job he lost everything except his life. When we hit the rough patches we can do one of two things - continue on or to take the path of least resistance away from God. A pain-free, trouble-free is not normal, throughout the Bible we see examples of suffering and pain and we are told to expect it.

God never promised us that we would be happy, healthy, and wealthy. We feel that God owes us. But God's greatest gifts often come to us through our suffering. And when we can find joy in the midst of our sorrow we have hope.

And our hope rests in Jesus' promise that He will be with us always until the end of our current age. God provides us with what we need when we need it. The perfect life is a matter of the soul and the grace God extends to us.

I was provided a copy of this title by the publisher for the purpose of this review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Available August 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Being a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), I have given numerous copies of Desperate for Hope to those who are suffering and in the midst of a trial. This book provides hope and healing for those seeking comfort from God's Word in the eye of the storm. Written like he talks, Bruce's insight of Scripture into life's biggest questions brings incredible and much needed peace and, unanticipated praise! Thank you, Bruce, for penning a book that will help so many during turbulent, uncertain, often questioning times. I highly recommend it to all counselors as an invaluable resource for clients. I also highly recommend it for bible study as well as support groups.

If you're looking for a book to tell you that everything's going to work out hunky-dory, this is not that book. At least not in the traditional sense. This is an unabashedly raw look at suffering and God's purposes in our lives through suffering. Bruce uses his own story, and other stories from friends and from historical figures, notably the story of Job from the Bible, to show that God has great purpose in our suffering. God doesn't necessarily cause us to go through storms in life, but He is always at work behind the scenes working for our good, for the good of others, and for His glory.

I have to be honest and admit that after my first read of this book, I was kind of left scratching my head and wondering "where's the hope?" I was expecting more promising chapter titles and subjects than "It Can Always Get Worse" and "When God Doesn't Act Right." But as I reviewed the content for a second time, the hope leapt off the pages at me. How did I miss it the first time? I realized that I had still been holding onto the "oh woe is me, why do bad things happen to me, I'm a good person" mindset. I had been looking for encouraging words that God would continue to bless me if I lived a good life, that He would keep bad things away from me in return for good behavior. But Bruce helped shattered this flawed theology. The truth is that we'll all experience suffering in our lives for various reasons, but our only real source of hope is a God who loves us too much to shield us from every pain that comes our way. There is much good that can come out of suffering, but all too often we only understand this after the storm has passed.

If you've ever gone through your own storm (which you have), if you're looking for serious reflections on the problem and blessing of suffering, if you're NOT searching for pat answers, then read this book. You won't find a quick fix check list to heal your pain, but you will find a soul-searching conversation with the author that may help you start or continue down the long road of hope and healing.

This book is deep, not boring, and keeps you wanting to read more.

This book does offer hope that you will get through the storm your going through. I did find it to be depressing reading story after story of other peoples storms. It made my heart ache for the other people whose struggles were worse than mine. Then I read chapter 9, and I learned to stop discrediting my own pain. The chapter goes on to let you know, your pain is just as real and painful to you, no matter the severity. I am pretty good at that one "their pain is worse than my pain".

At the end of every chapter are questions for you to ponder and get you thinking. They come in handy.

There are lots of bible references, which I think is very important for a book like this.

The book focuses a lot on the life of Job and how he dealt with his storm he was going through. It really shines a different light on how we see Job. We get pointed out to us that Job had his weaknesses, instead of focusing on him being a strong man who made it through his trials. You get to learn how he really reacted to all his trials, like wishing he had never been born. I have felt that way in the past, but I didn't lose my faith in God.

Some topics are God's timing, Can it get worse, Grace, Your new normal for those life changing storms, dealing with friends, and many more.