Product Details
- Cover Type:
- 160 Pages
- Publisher: Good Book Co
- Publication Date: January 2024
- ISBN: FWATKICL____JUSTBEHONESTHOWTOWOR9781784988951
Just Be Honest: How to Worship Through Tears and Pray Without Pretending
Suffering often causes deep spiritual agony. You might be left thinking, "Where is God? Why is he allowing this? Why doesn't he do something?" And then guilt whispers to your soul, "Am I allowed to say these things? Shouldn't I trust God without hesitation? Am I just a faithless Christian?"
This honest, warm and personal book shows us that we don't need to wrap up our stories of suffering with lessons and silver linings or suppress our pain. Being honest with God, and with others, about our heartache is not only "allowed" but encouraged in the Scriptures. In fact, lament is authorized by God as an act of worship.
Weaving in his own story of pain and loss with biblical reflections, Clint Watkins shows us how lament is permitted by Jesus, shaped by Scripture, fueled by grace and filled with hope. And when we lament as communities through worship and testimony, we minister hope to a hurting world.
Learn how to pray without pretending by sharing your hurts with God. As you draw near to the Father, experience genuine hope and joy amid grief and pain.
A great gift for Christians who are suffering and a useful resource for church leaders and others who are walking alongside them.
Clint Watkins is a missionary to college students.
Free Downloads
Psalms 42-43 - 8x10 (PDF)
This is My Father's World - 8x10 (PDF)
Study Guide (PDF)
Endorsements (${ productEndorsements.length })
““Just Be Honest is a rare treasure: a book on suffering I would actually dare to give someone in the midst of their pain. Heartwrenchingly honest about how faith is no stranger to deep pain and how Scripture refuses to oversimplify the struggle with anguish in our souls, this book will connect to the Lord hearts shattered by countless griefs by teaching the piercing, soul-sustaining path of lament.””
J. Alasdair Groves
““Our God can handle periods on the ends of our sentences of pain. ‘I’m devastated.’ ‘We’re reeling.’ ‘Honestly, I’m really struggling.’ He feels no anxiety to immediately relieve the tension. He is not too fragile for our faith to be fragile. Yet some of us feel the pressure to leave no more than commas, if we leave room for any pause at all. Meanwhile the spirit of our age evokes complaining, wallowing, and unbelief. How might we learn to lament faithfully, as Christians? Clint Watkins has suffered deeply, thought deeply, and knows the deep, deep love of Jesus. Let him share his scarred and recovering soul— and his scarred and majestic consoling King. Jesus does not commend doubt but calls and welcomes us to bring it to him. He gives not only joy in place of pain, but joy deeper than pain in the midst of it. He is a king who can handle your periods, your pauses, and your process.” ”
David Mathis
Executive Editor at desiringGod.org and author of Habits of Grace
“Abbey Wedgeworth”
Author, Held
“Clint helps readers discover a legacy of lament that allows us to hope through heartache and trust through tears. Clint has known loss that cannot be assuaged by Christian platitudes, yet he writes beautifully of the consolation he found when he broke his silence with Jesus, the one ‘acquainted with grief.’”
“Clint helps readers discover a legacy of lament that allows us to hope through heartache and trust through tears. Clint has known loss that cannot be assuaged by Christian platitudes, yet he writes beautifully of the consolation he found when he broke his silence with Jesus, the one ‘acquainted with grief.’ Why do I presume that faith means pretending that the Christian life is always cheery and fulfilling? Through his careful unfolding of the biblical witness on lament and complaint, Watkins extended to me the Lord’s permission both to grieve and grieve like a Christian. I suspect he’ll do the same for you.”
Peter Krol
President, DiscipleMakers campus ministry
“Adriel Booker”
Author, 'Grace Like Scarlett' and 'Tethered to Hope'
With pastoral tenderness and wisdom, Clint Watkins shares how the practice of honest lament was the grace he needed to draw near to God in a time of acute pain and heartache. Watkins compels us to make space in our personal lives and faith communities for worship practices that engage the whole spectrum of human longing and need. In an age when we’re rewarded for putting our best selves forward, Just Be Honest is not a blueprint for a better way but an invitation to enter one.
“The compassion and empathy of Jesus may surprise you, and it will undoubtedly comfort you. For those of us who have experienced deep heartache, and for any who have walked with friends through unimaginable grief, the gems in this book are more precious than gold. Here is wisdom for our sorrows and solace for our pains. Very few people get through this life unscathed by suffering, and Just Be Honest helps us grasp that reality that Jesus is ‘hospitable to heartache’ and that ‘hurting people need to be heard.’ Absorbing and applying these truths can save your faith and help you brave the brokenness of life with those you love. Whether you are amid sorrow currently, preparing for sorrow eventually, or walking with others through their sorrows sympathetically, this book will prove to be a masterful guide!”
Craig Allen Cooper
USA Today Best-Selling Author, Glad You’re Here (with Walker Hayes); Author, Overflowing Mercies
“Clint helps readers discover a legacy of lament that allows us to hope through heartache and trust through tears. Clint has known loss that cannot be assuaged by Christian platitudes, yet he writes beautifully of the consolation he found when he broke his silence with Jesus, the one ‘acquainted with grief.’ ”
Peter Greer
President and CEO, HOPE International and coauthor of Mission Drift
Product Description
Suffering often causes deep spiritual agony. You might be left thinking, "Where is God? Why is he allowing this? Why doesn't he do something?" And then guilt whispers to your soul, "Am I allowed to say these things? Shouldn't I trust God without hesitation? Am I just a faithless Christian?"
This honest, warm and personal book shows us that we don't need to wrap up our stories of suffering with lessons and silver linings or suppress our pain. Being honest with God, and with others, about our heartache is not only "allowed" but encouraged in the Scriptures. In fact, lament is authorized by God as an act of worship.
Weaving in his own story of pain and loss with biblical reflections, Clint Watkins shows us how lament is permitted by Jesus, shaped by Scripture, fueled by grace and filled with hope. And when we lament as communities through worship and testimony, we minister hope to a hurting world.
Learn how to pray without pretending by sharing your hurts with God. As you draw near to the Father, experience genuine hope and joy amid grief and pain.
A great gift for Christians who are suffering and a useful resource for church leaders and others who are walking alongside them.
Clint Watkins is a missionary to college students.
Free Downloads
Psalms 42-43 - 8x10 (PDF)
This is My Father's World - 8x10 (PDF)
Study Guide (PDF)
About The Author
Product Details
- Cover Type:
- 160 Pages
- Publisher: Good Book Co
- Publication Date: January 2024
- ISBN: FWATKICL____JUSTBEHONESTHOWTOWOR9781784988951