As the author explains, Job’s wife was an unnamed woman in the Bible with a surprisingly short excerpt regarding her state of mind. The author poignantly looks at Scripture and asks herself how she might have felt, while admitting that each one of us may have felt similar feelings towards God. With that, she blends the details of Job’s story with insight from women’s personal testimonies of loss and tragedy.
What comes forth is a beautiful tapestry of God’s work throughout trauma and includes underlying steps that we are led to walk through. These are incredible steps that lead to the discovery of not only ourselves, but reveal God in the midst of great trials. The author has designed an important book for this time that relates the faith that can grow through grievous times of loss. There is hope ladies! One can learn to thrive and overcome.
Setting the stage during each tragedy Job faces, eventually Job’s wife tells her husband to curse God and die. Haven’t we all felt like that? Still, that leaves us wondering, did her faith stand? How does her choice to curse God and the complete disdain for her husband parallel with feelings one might have after destruction has occurred?
Truly, this is an incredibly insightful read as author Linda Jo Reed takes readers into a delicate telling of those who “chose” to overcome, revealing God at work. At the end of each chapter are meditation and journal questions, ending in a heartfelt prayer that can help lead one back to a path of hope again, making this an interactive book.
With such chapters as: Loss and Disorientation, Stress and Abandonment, Repentance and Forgiveness, Acceptance and Compassion, Silence and Listening, and Believe and Trust, her book helps identify what to do with these feelings, and how to get back to belief and trust. There is comfort knowing that we are not alone in our sufferings.
Developed for individual or in group setting, this would make a great Women’s Bible study. This book comes highly recommended for those that have faced such grief, loss, and overwhelming despair and is a must-read for those believers (or unbelievers) that question God, find themselves angry at God and doubt His goodness. Additionally, this is also a timely and Spirit-led work for many in the Body of Christ that have suffered long and are looking for answers, solutions, and restoration.
I personally thank the author and the women for their stories in this magnificent book! You may get your copy of Job’s Choice: A Journey of Encouragement at Amazon or in Kindle as a download. ~ Book Review by CBM Christian Book Reviews
