1. Selection of appropriate chapters by a pastor or counsellor for struggling Christians to read and study at home, followed by review, discussion and application during counselling meetings.
2. As a resource for pastors, teachers and small group leaders in preparation for sermons and instruction on the topic, ‘how to persevere in the face of suffering.’
3. Support for the struggling child of God as a ‘mentor in print’ – bringing continual comfort, encouragement and direction during a season of serious and grievous trials.
4. As a positive correction of false teaching about suffering in the life of a believer.
5. As a tool for teaching the interconnectedness of three doctrines: the providence of God, sanctification and suffering – with continual application to the life of the reader.
6. To help renew the mind of a struggling believer during a season of sharp afflictions.
7. As a resource for church libraries which promotes biblical thinking in a topic that has been widely neglected in Christian circles today.
8. As a reading text in a counselling training curriculum on the topic ‘helping those who suffer.’
9. As a required reading text for various studies in Bible colleges, seminaries, theological institutes – training leaders to think biblically about this critical issue of practical theology.
10. As a catalyst for Scripture-based discussion, sharing of testimonies and mutual prayer and support in home group meetings or discipleship settings.
11. As a one-volume promotion of the counselling training curriculum of Storehouse of the King, offering to the public some important themes which characterize the Storehouse ministry.
12. To counter increasing numbers of books written and published in the field of counselling that fail to maintain the biblical emphases of the individual’s heart before God (or, living coram deo).
13. As a sermon resource for pastors who would like to present a preaching series on the book of Job.
14. Church leaders may find help to answer difficult questions by referring to the numerous exegetical and theological sections of this book as well as the thematic and Scriptural indices.
15. This book may serve as a reference book for church leadership in answering difficult questions: temptation, the work of Satan, Scriptural terms for the inner person, the believer’s experience of God’s abandonment and desertion, grace and gifts, etc.
16. As a companion text to Catechism for Counsellors, providing expositions of concise doctrinal positions formulated in Catechism for Counsellors, together with clarifications and applications.
17. As a companion text to Spiritual Surgery, expanding the thinking of Svetlana (the counsellor) at many of the 227 junctures as she used the Scalpel of Scripture in ministry to Maria (the counsellee).
18. As help for choosing a counsellor: one desiring help may select sections important to him/her and request prospective counsellors to discuss, comment on, and evaluate those sections.
19. Using the many footnotes which cite other authors as a treasury of Scriptural images, analogies and precious insights upon which to meditate for the soul’s profit.
20. Using the concluding confessions (chapter 22), by meditation and memorization, to embed earlier teaching in the book as nails upon the tablet of the heart of the reader.

Ron Harris
July 2010

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