What can a devotional do to help you face chronic illness? When it’s written by an excellent counselor and a fellow sufferer, it turns out that a devotional can help you a lot. This is a volume that helps reframe the struggle of living with chronic illness by directing the sufferer towards God.
Chronic Illness: Walking By Faith is another contribution to the 31-Day Devotionals for Life series published by P&R. Like the other volumes in this series, the strengths of this work are its short focused devotionals followed by practical applications. Each day starts with a text of Scripture, followed by a brief and focused meditation. Then each day concludes with some reflection questions and a practical way in which to apply the principles from the meditation. It’s a great series overall and this volume is another winner.
In Chronic Illness, Smith has broken down her subject into four parts: Draw Near to God, Take Care of Yourself, Live with Purpose, and Don’t Give Up. Each section gives practical guidance for living with chronic illness, but each section is also connected intimately to the Lord. Smith is clear that drawing near to God matters because ultimately “he is your only certainty” (11). She summarizes the point of the book as highlighting “four lessons Scripture has taught me about how to faithfully live with chronic illness.” They are lessons that we can all stand to learn. Scripture has much to say about physical suffering and Smith point us to God’s Word to help frame our approach to ongoing illness.
Esther Smith serves as the kind of guide you want when going through this hardship. She is knowledgable, experienced, compassionate, and an excellent counselor throughout. This devotional cannot take away your pain, but neither does it minimize the existence of your pain. Chronic Illness takes seriously the hardship of living with sickness but it also offers solidarity and hope. Through the use of Scripture she encourages readers on honoring their limitations and honoring God’s sovereignty and kindness. This is a fantastic volume and well worth reading if you live with chronic illness.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 
Dave – Very glad to see you regularly posting book reviews. This is very helpful for those of us who are making recommendations to others, especially regarding faith / spiritual / life crisis issues. Questions and problems that incline people to seek comfort in God’s grace also motivate them to actively seek recommendations for good books just like the one you are reviewing here. It is impossible for those who would like to be of assistance to read them all, so reviews like this one from credible Christian pastor / scholars are very valuable. So thanks, and I will be watching for more.
Thankyou Dave. I saw this in the bookstore and thought I would read it after I finish a few ahead of it.
~ Alan: Born with Cerebral Palsy, suffered with 10 years of intense Crohn’s disease, and capped off with a SCI Paralegia topped with a LOT of pain … The pain is the toughest bullet to bite. God has been gracious to me all the way through it all. He uses it all to open doors to others ears and hearts like nothing else. PTL.