In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God: 31 Days of Hope, Honesty, and Encouragement for the Sufferer
By Colleen Chao
5/5
()
About this ebook
Is it possible to face the darkest days of life with hope and joy and purpose?
The life of Colleen Chao was bright and beautiful—it was brimming with hope and possibility. She was a talented, confident, and ambitious young woman. So, Colleen never imagined that she’d swim through two decades of deep-water anxiety and depression. She didn’t guess that she’d marry late, suffer years of chronic pain and illness, and give birth to a child with health complications. And never in her life did she imagine hearing the words: “Cancer. Stage four. Terminal.”
In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God is born of the suffering that on its own could have crushed Colleen. Her pain, instead, opened her eyes to eternal realities and has wrought a soul of indestructible joy. How do we suffer long and well? What do we do when we feel cheated? How do we face pressing darkness? One thing Colleen has learned is that we cannot bear the suffering alone. We need lots of help. To that end, Colleen shares a precious devotional gift with the suffering soul: thirty-one days of wisdom, hope, and encouragement. Drawing upon stories from past saints, rich truths from Scripture, and habits that build joyful endurance, Colleen helps fellow sufferers to embrace one day at a time, to trust and love Jesus more, and put themselves In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God.
Related to In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God
Related ebooks
All Who Are Weary: Finding True Rest By Letting Go of the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Carry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Where I End: A Story of Tragedy, Truth, and Rebellious Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loneliness: Don't Hate it or Waste it. Redeem it. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKiss the Wave: Embracing God in Your Trials Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Help for the Hungry Soul: Eight Encouragements to Grow Your Appetite for God's Word Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTherefore I Have Hope: 12 Truths That Comfort, Sustain, and Redeem in Tragedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Does His Best Work with Empty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Hunger for More: Finding Satisfaction in Jesus When the Good Life Doesn't Fill You Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Choosing Forgiveness: Moving from Hurt to Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow God Loves Us: 40 Days to Discovering His Character in the Fruit of the Spirit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Does God Change Us? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Want + Plenty: Waking Up to God's Provision in a Land of Longing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5With All Your Heart: Living Joyfully through Allegiance to King Jesus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHe is Enough: Living in the Fullness of Jesus (A Study in Colossians) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Great Cloud of Witnesses: A Study of Those Who Lived by Faith (A Study in Hebrews 11) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Pain Is Real and God Seems Silent: Finding Hope in the Psalms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Peace through Prayer: Seven Practices for Praying in Hard Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrue to His Word: 100 Meditations on the Faithfulness of God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Either Way, We’ll Be All Right: An Honest Exploration of God in Our Grief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRagged: Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Humbled: Welcoming the Uncomfortable Work of God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guarded by Christ: Knowing the God Who Rescues and Keeps Us Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeated with Christ: Living Freely in a Culture of Comparison Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Suffering Wisely and Well: The Grief of Job and the Grace of God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Aging with Grace: Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5He Is Not Ashamed: The Staggering Love of Christ for His People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Garden to Glory: How Understanding God's Story Changes Yours Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld on Fire: Walking in the Wisdom of Christ When Everyone’s Fighting About Everything Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Christianity For You
Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5NIV, Holy Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better (updated with two new chapters) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God
4 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
In the Hands of a Fiercely Tender God - Colleen Chao
INTRODUCTION
At eighteen years old, I had the world on a string.
I could sing and speak to crowds. I’d earned public accolades for my writing. I had endless energy, a strong work ethic, and friends in high places.
And I loved Jesus. I wanted to use all my strengths and giftings to tell the world about Him.
Never in a million years could I have imagined what lay before me: I would spend two decades in the deep waters of anxiety and depression, marry late, suffer twelve years of chronic pain and illness, give birth to a child with health complications, walk through crushing private sorrows, and one day hear those life-altering words:
You have cancer.
And then a few years later—
Your cancer is back. Stage four. Terminal.
Suffering on its own would have wrecked me. Dark days can poison the soul and rot the bones. But in the hands of a fiercely tender God, suffering has slowly freed me, opened my eyes to see eternal realities more clearly, and worked in me inexplicable joy. With each new pain and sorrow, I have come to love and believe Jesus more.
Because I don’t naturally have the capacity or skills to suffer well (in fact, I’m a sad, whiny, worrisome sufferer on my own), I’ve learned I need help along this journey, and lots of it. And at every turn God has provided it: I’ve learned how to experience Jesus through His Word. I’ve learned how to glean from the examples of past saints who suffered far more than I have (and suffered with joy). I’ve learned how to pray through the darkest nights of despair. I’ve learned practical habits that have helped me to laugh—not just cry—through years of unrelenting crises.
Within these pages are gifts that I’ve been given in suffering and now I gladly pass along to you, my fellow sufferer. These are the saints, Scriptures, hopes, and habits that have paved my suffering way with great joy. I’m not an authority on the subject of suffering (far from it), but with this book I happily add my voice to the refrain of the multitudes who testify to the fact that God is breathtakingly good to His children on the darkest days and in the deepest pits. He never cheats them. He always outgives them. And if He has entrusted you with suffering, dear one, it is because He loves you beyond anything you can imagine.
May this little book help you to experience His perfect love along your suffering way—
LOOK
The day we received my first cancer diagnosis, my husband and I sat down with our (then) six-year-old son to tell him the news. Jeremy shed some tears and hugged me tight. I locked eyes with him and said, "This is hard, isn’t it, bud? It’s not good news. But God is with us, and He turns everything for our good. Everything. So, we don’t need to fear. And God is going to use this in your life in amazing ways."
Jeremy paused, then asked if we could read the story of the Fiery Furnace.
My husband opened the Bible to Daniel 3 and read of King Nebuchadnezzar’s intimidating gold statue, threatening edict, and furious rage at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they refused to bow down. You know how the story goes: after the men had been bound and thrown into the fiery inferno—
King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisers, Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire?
Yes, of course, Your Majesty,
they replied to the king.
He exclaimed, Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.
Dan. 3:24–25
My husband finished the story and closed the Bible, and after a pause Jeremy said, There are four of us in this family.
In his suffering, a six-year-old looked and saw that God was with us in our own fiery furnace. He was given eyes to see Jesus standing with us in the flames.
But we’re not always so quick to see God with us in the fire, are we? Our eyes are more easily fixed on the pain, the loss, the unfairness. We see the impossible circumstances before us, and we despair, worry, fear, or fume. God, why have You allowed this furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual?! Why so much pain? Why the sting of death?
Isaac Ambrose wrote, Whilst we look on these things, we cannot see the beauty that is in Christ.
¹ While our gaze is fixed on the furnace and the flames, we miss the Son of God whose presence with us in the fire is worth far more than any comfort, any dream fulfilled, any security, any promise of health or relief or rescue. Ambrose continues:
Oh that all men … would presently fall upon the practice of this gospel art of looking unto Jesus! … Only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness; the sun to enlighten him, the physician to heal him, the wall of fire to defend him, the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures, As an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Isa. 32:2 Come then! let us look on this Sun of righteousness: we cannot receive harm, but good, by such a look…. As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so this sight transcends all other sights; it is the epitome of a Christian’s happiness. (italics