In Luke 22:42 we see the most stunning reality of the mystery of suffering as our Lord Himself pleads to the Father through agony and great drops of blood, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done. I began reading “Chronic Love” by Brooke Bartz because I have suffered over the past 4 years with Chronic illness/disability which has made me want to give up and has tested my faith many times. We are by nature children of wrath and so every moment not being under His wrath, and having everything He permits work out to our good and His glory is grace and mercy, lavished. Like Job, we may never know why we have chronic illnesses, but we can trust that our Savior knows and that He helps us to endure.

For true and lasting comfort we must dig deeper into God's Word and the context in which those much-used passages were written. While this is written in a conversational language that is easy to read, it took me several days to finish it because I found myself wanting to savor and ponder the Bible verses and the author’s perspective. Brooke Bartz is a stay-at-home wife and mom who lives daily with a chronic disease, knowing firsthand the daunting, gnawing physical and spiritual pain it causes.It is as if she is walking with her readers through their journeys with chronic illnesses or caring for those with chronic illnesses. I so needed this book as I suffer from chronic illness and my faith has waned and my walk with Christ diminished as I wallow in my despair. Jesus told us we would face perilous trials and that even our bodies would feel the effects of the Fall.

For the past seven and a half years, since age 24, I have been battling chronic illness, and one diagnosis follows another in a domino effect as my body continues to fail me. As one who has chronic (and as yet undiagnosed) health issues, this book is a blessing and one I will probably purchase in paperback and refer to over and over again.At Chronic Love, in collaboration with our generous featured guests, we share candid discussions about living with and beyond chronic illness with the intention of showing the humanity, the wholeness of life impacted by chronic disease and chronic conditions. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. I picked this book up primarily thinking of one of my relatives, but also because of a few others that I know who live with chronic illnesses. As one who has suffered a chronic illness for over a decade I wanted to like this book, and I tried, I really tried.

But it’s also not all doom and gloom either… because the hope we have for eternity through Jesus far surpasses any hardships we may face on earth.By reading "Chronic Love" I not only received an education of how to preach to myself in the midst of suffering, but was also taught what it looks like to not waste an education, or waste my suffering. The book shows women how to really dig deep into God's Word and rely on him, even through the toughest days. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As Bartz reminds us, “[t]o have physical health but no salvation is the most fatal and terminal disease of all.

Each year Ambassador International works with a variety of talented, passionate authors using their gifts to change lives.I highly recommend this book to anyone who suffers from chronic illnesses or cares for someone who has chronic illnesses.