A Letter to Help Endure

By Adam J. Carey

Have you ever suffered and struggled to understand why God would allow it? Have you ever seriously considered leaving the church because of your lack of answers? How have you suffered? Fill in the blank, what is it for you? In this book Adam shares about his journey with mental illness and how he has learned to endure. This book’s purpose is to encourage and help others endure through hard, challenging, and difficult life circumstances. This Bible-based book is not just a set of benign principles but eighteen points that can considerably change things in life for the better. It does not guarantee a cure from any or every affliction, but can help a person find peace, hope, and ultimately a trust in God despite circumstances. These things learned do not only apply to people with mental illness but to people with any and every form of suffering and pain regardless the issue. Part 1 speaks of how we can live life to the fullest through Christ and that there is no pointless season of suffering for the Christian as all things work together for our ultimate good. It will always be by far worth it in the end for the Christian who endures. If we overcome, we shall inherit all things and receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. When a person suffers it is often a person’s understanding and perception of who God is and his character that is challenged. Therefore suffering can help us understand the character of God and who he is, perhaps this is one reason why God allows it. This is why part of this book focuses on six aspects of God’s character to clarify part of who he is. It is logical and is easier to trust God when we understand more of who he is although it is still a step of faith. God has given us many invaluable gifts such as being a new creation if in Christ. This helps us to understand our fundamental value and helps us to prevail for all time.

2

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098087692

Book preview

cover.jpg

A Letter to Help Endure

Adam J. Carey

Copyright © 2021 by Adam J. Carey

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Most verses quoted are mainly from the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Holy Bible. The New International Version (NIV), the New Living Translation (NLT), and the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Holy Bible are also quoted, and when used the translation is placed in parentheses.

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

On Suffering and Our Understanding of God

On Our Understanding of the Truths of God’s Character and Three Subsequent Results

On the Beautiful Gifts God Has Given Us and How They Help Us to Prevail

To Those Who Suffer and to Our Glorious God.

Part 1

Part One: On Suffering and Our Understanding of God

I look back and remember a time when I was absolutely done with God, unequivocally done. I was right near the end of my rope if not past it. I knew I had a mental illness, and I didn’t understand it. I was with it enough to know it wasn’t normal, and I blamed God for it. After all, isn’t he in complete control? I was a devout Christian before I got sick I even wanted to go to seminary for a year after high school. I thought God made a mistake and messed up. I was angry, depressed, and absolutely miserable. Is that even possible? Did anyone understand what I was going through and what I felt? I felt life was passing me by. My twenties were supposed to be the best years of my life, right? It has been a long journey since then, and I had bought into some toxic lies about God and who he was.

Whether we suffer for five seconds with a papercut or we experience the utmost of severity of lifelong suffering and affliction, which is how I felt for years, our response to this pain as Christians is now clearer to me than it has ever been. Sometimes people think that the Bible doesn’t address the topic of suffering and pain, but this is anything but true. The Bible is full of people who have suffered and suffered severely through inexplicable circumstances. The basis for my response and reasoning is the Bible, the Word of God. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). God is the source of all truth. Therefore, his Word is true.

My journey in life is in part a journey with mental illness. Such is my affliction. I firmly believe that mental illness is not a sin. I am absolutely convinced that it is possible to live a good, meaningful Christian life that honors God and have such an illness. Please do not stop reading if you do not have a mental illness and feel this does not apply to you. The things I have learned and written in this book apply to any and every form of suffering regardless of the issue. The focus of part 1 of this letter will be five premises that I have learned and arrived at.

I have decided to write this letter for two reasons. Reason number one: I hope this letter might comfort those, especially Christians, who have gone through or are going through hard, difficult, and challenging times. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too (2 Corinthians 1:3–5). I understand that, as God has comforted me, it is my responsibility to comfort others with the comfort I have received from God. It makes me sad when people leave the church or stop believing in God because of suffering because there are answers,