In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul states that God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we may be able to comfort others who are hurting, in the same way He has comforted us.
I have always loved the sentiment of that verse especially because I know it’s backed by God’s truth.
He has always been there for me through troubled times, comforting me and pushing me on. In many of those instances, I have had the privilege of helping others who’ve gone through similar circumstances by sharing with them how God helped me.
That is no more true than after God gave me the victory over my last horrible anxiety attack. Even as I was going through it, I knew God was doing something important with it, not just for my life, but for the lives of others.
I knew he hadn’t pulled together so many different resources and placed so many wise people in my life for me to just keep all that knowledge, all that healing, to myself.
I knew it was his will for me to share it. That is why I wrote my book. That is the whole reason for this blog, and that is the prime reason for this particular post.
When I started my blog, I always had a post like this in mind. It was just a question of when would be the right time to publish it.
I decided, with the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping season both upon us, there couldn’t be a better time.
Today I’d like to share with you some of the resources God has used over the past two years to deepen my faith, strengthen my mind and transform my relationship with Him.
I can’t think of a better way to say thank you to Him than to share some of the resources from which I have gained so much wisdom. Nor can I think of a better way to thank you, my readers, than to make some of these things available to you.
Plus, being that it is the shopping season, I thought some of you may want to pick up one or two of these items as a gift for a friend, or for yourself.
I will include links to each item so you can take a look at them, and if you wish, you can buy them right from my site.
The first item I want to share is the study Bible I have been using for the past year and a half.
I have had many Bibles over the years, but the last study Bible I owned was the one my parents gave me when I graduated from high school. It was a dusty rose-colored Scofield with my name engraved on the front. I used it well, and after four years of college and bus ministry, it looked it.
I still tried to use its notes once in a while, but mostly, if I wanted clarification on something I was reading in the Bible, I would look at the Matthew Henry commentary I used at the Bible Institute I attended.
After my anxiety attack of 2016, when I decided I was going to dig deeper than ever before into God’s Word, I began researching study Bibles, asking God for wisdom about the one that was right for me.
I have long admired John MacArthur, not because he is a well-known preacher, but because God has used his writing to speak to my heart about some very important issues.
Once when I was doubting my salvation, and several times when my anxiety had gotten the best of me, I have searched some trusted sources on the Internet for help, and each time, it has been God’s wisdom through MacArthur’s words that has spoken to me so personally.
So, when I found out he had his own study Bible, I was extremely interested. I asked one of my pastor friends about it and not only did he highly recommend it, by God’s sovereign grace, he told me he had one he would send me.
It has been such a tremendous blessing. MacArthur does a great job of using his notes to fill you in on the history of the events taking place. It makes it a lot more relatable and a lot easier to comprehend. He also gives the etymology of certain words, especially if they had a far different meaning in Hebrew or Greek than they do in English.
It has a lot of other great features, but I don’t have space to explain them all here. Suffice to say, I highly recommend it.
It comes in several translations. My friend gave me the ESV.
I grew up on the KJV, and it will always be my favorite, but I have found that when I read a different translation I’m able to gain new insights. Sometimes when I read the KJV, I know it so well and have memorized so many verses that my mind will jump to the end of the passage before my heart has had time to let it all sink in.
I have given links for the NKJV and the ESV.
Unfortunately, it does not come in KJV.
I know a lot of other people have grown up with KJV and prefer it and some use only it so I asked my friend if he could recommend a good study Bible in KJV.
He said his father, who is also a pastor, likes the Life Application Bible. I have actually researched it before, and thought it looked really good. In fact, I almost bought my daughter one a few years ago, but thought she was a little too young for it at the time.
Whichever Bible you choose, the most important thing, of course, is to use it. The Holy Spirit can make a simple pocket New Testament a study Bible if you let him. Always remember He is our main source of illumination when it comes to understanding God’s word, but a good study Bible is a great help too.
It was only about a month after I received my Bible in the mail that our Sunday School class at church started going through the book, “Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds, by Jen Wilkin.
It was obvious to me that God was utilizing every circumstance of my life to answer my prayers and help me rebuild a solid trust in Him. I knew the best way to grow to trust Him more was to get to know Him better, and this book was a great start down that path.
In over 40 years of going to good Bible-believing churches, a year of Bible school and three years at a liberal arts Christian university, I have heard dozens of solid Bible preachers. They have taught me much about the Bible, but in all those years I don’t think I ever had a class or heard a sermon on how to actually study the Bible.
I certainly had pieced together my own process over the years, but I just found it kind of interesting that no one ever taught or preached on it.
The practical steps she gave were extremely helpful, but the biggest truth God taught me through her book came at the very beginning.
She explained that there is a key misconception many people, including herself for many years, bring into their study of the Bible. People approach their Bible study attempting to find out about themselves. What is God trying to say to me? What is God’s will for my life? What does God want me to do?
She notes that, while the Bible can certainly help us with these questions, it is not all about us. It is first and foremost, a book about God. Therefore, instead of beginning with what can I learn about me today, the first question we need to ask is, “What can I learn about God?” “What do you want to teach me about yourself today, God?”
Having the right view of the Bible, helps us have the right view of life.
If you’ve read the Bible for years, but never really known how to study it, or if your studying can be a bit haphazard and you’d like a better plan – this book is a great choice!
As I continued in my quest to increase my knowledge and understanding of God and develop a deeper trust in him as a result, I decided it would be a great idea to study the attributes of God.
As “fate” would have it, and by fate I mean God’s divine intervention, Jen Wilkin’s second book just happened to be on the attributes of God.
It is called “None Like Him: 10 Ways God is Different Thank Us and Why That’s a Good Thing.” In it, she explores ten of God’s attributes which make Him so very different from us, and explains how they are exactly what makes Him God and not us.
I absolutely love this book. In fact, I am going to use this link to order myself one because the one I read I had borrowed from a friend. It is one of those books you want to keep on hand, especially when you go through difficult times.
When the devil tries to feed you lies and make you question God’s goodness to you, pull out this book and remind yourself of the awesome God you serve. Focus on the certainty of His nature instead of the uncertainty of your surroundings.
The last book I’d like to mention here, came around the same time I received my study Bible. The same friend who sent me the study Bible was going through this book with his church. Their church theme that year was “Our Sufficiency in Christ” and they were reading the book of the same name, written by John MacArthur.
I thought it sounded like it fit right in with all God had been teaching me, and ordered myself a copy.
I was not disappointed.
Here is a small excerpt of the for the book:
Pure Christianity needs no embellishment whatsoever. We find complete sufficiency in Christ and His provision for our needs.
But too many Christians have bought in to the notion that all the spiritual resources we gain at the moment of salvation are not adequate to meet the real needs in today’s complex world. So they look for something more―an emotionally exciting and self-edifying experience not found in God’s Word.
In this book John MacArthur exposes the main ways Christians have displaced their spiritual resources and explains how to avoid making the same error. It will make you newly aware of how completely God provides―and give you a renewed understanding of what it means to be “complete in Christ.”
As you can probably see by reading through this post, this is not just a list of good Bibles and books to read, but an amazing testimony to how God providentially moved in my life to bring me healing and help in overcoming my anxiety.
I am more than a little bit grateful, and I believe one of the best ways I can thank Him for all the help He’s given and all the wisdom He made available to me, is to pass it along to others.
I pray these things are a help to you, or someone that you love.
If you have any questions about any of these books, feel free to ask in the comments or sent them to my email.
