blessings from brokenness: insights from Draw Near by Hadassah Treu

I’m happy to share my five-star book review of Draw Near by Hadassah Treu. Hadassah offers her perspective on life and loss, filling the book with encouragement and insight. It’s full of wisdom about the gifts found through the most difficult seasons of our lives.

Book cover blurb from Draw Near by Hadassah Treu:

Can something so painful, even tragic, actually be God’s way of blessing?

As believers, we generally expect good things to happen in our lives. We expect blessing upon blessing because we love God and He loves us and we form an expectation of prosperity (relational, emotional, and physical). And when the tragedy strikes and we enter a season of unwanted changes and suffering, we are shocked, angry, disappointed, and confused. We start doubting God’s love and His good intentions and plans. We begin questioning His ways and methods. We don’t understand. It is difficult to reconcile the pain we feel with what we know about God. This encouraging book aims to help you not only identify and accept specific losses but to realize that painful experiences could be the birthplace of blessings. We lose something, but there is more to gain.

What is God using your pain for?

Hadassah Treu’s bio taken from the Amazon page featuring her book Draw Near:

Winner of the Encouraging Blogger Award of 2020, Hadassah is an international Christian author, blogger and poet, and contributor to several faith-based platforms like Koinonia and Devotable, and a dozen award-winning devotionals and poetry anthologies. She is a COMPEL Provers 31 Blog writer and Freelancing Community Group leader. Her writing is featured on (In)Courage, The Upper Room, Proverbs 31 Ministries, Her View From Home, Living by Design Ministries, Thoughts About God, Today’s Christian Living and other popular sites. Connect with Hadassah at onthewaybg.com.

In the book, Hadassah divides the chapters according to the gifts she’s discovered through various types of struggles. Let’s touch on a few….

The gifts hidden in adversity

Among other things, Hadassah talks about the story of Joseph, son of Jacob, in the Bible. His is a powerful story of overcoming adversity and accomplishing tremendous feats. He was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers but rose to become the second most powerful man in Egypt after interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams. Despite his hardships, Joseph forgave his brothers and saved his family from famine by bringing them to Egypt. His story is a tale of perseverance, forgiveness, and divine providence.

God’s strength sustained Joseph through his many trials. His story prompts important questions: What did Joseph gain? What did he learn? How was his character developed? How did his experiences equip him?

The gifts hidden in sadness

One thing I noticed throughout the book is the rich selection of scripture passages underpinning her commentary. The chapter on sadness is no different, drawing from the stories of Jeremiah and Elijah.

Jeremiah, a prophet during the final years of Judah, faced intense persecution for his warnings of Jerusalem’s impending destruction and calls for repentance. Despite his sorrow and hardships, he remained faithful to his mission, ultimately witnessing the fall of Jerusalem.

Elijah, a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel, performed miracles and confronted the worship of Baal, notably challenging the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Despite his victories, Elijah faced threats from Queen Jezebel and experienced moments of deep despair, but he was sustained by God’s care and eventually taken to heaven in a whirlwind.

Peppered throughout this section is a beautiful discussion of hope. In particular, Hadassah highlights three levels of hope. With great care and insight from her personal experiences, she talks about sadness as an opportunity to experience God’s comfort.

The fact that the Lord is there is the greatest possible comfort! He is there in the ruins, in the pain, in the garbage, in the suffering, in the darkness, and in the hopelessness. He not only knows, he also feels our pain. The Lord is there–knowing, feeling, holding, comforting, and working. Jesus is our Emmanuel (God with us) and this truth is the greatest possible comfort in every painful circumstance that causes sadness.

from Draw Near by Hadassah Treu

The gifts hidden in anxiety

In this chapter, Hadassah shares candidly about her experience with general anxiety disorder and panic attacks. She talks about how she needed to change the way she thinks in order to experience freedom and overcome fear. Through her struggles with anxiety, she has solidified her faith and has grown in her reverence for God. Her discussion is couched in numerous Bible passages about the fear of the Lord and what that means for our attitudes and spiritual growth. This leads into a lovely in-depth discussion of peace as she contrasts our peace with the peace God provides.

The gifts hidden in rejection

In this chapter, Hadassah shares the anguish of her heart through her experience with infertility and the associated feelings of rejection. While these feelings of rejection were deeply personal, Hadassah also talks about instances of professional rejection. She describes how God’s love enabled her to love those who had rejected her despite her heartache.

Hadassah carefully explores the myriad facets of rejection. She crafts a beautiful response to the human need for love and acceptance: that God is our true source of wholeness. She draws from the story of Hagar, an Egyptian maidservant of Abraham’s wife Sarah. When Sarah was unable to conceive, she gave Hagar to Abraham to bear a child, resulting in the birth of Ishmael. After experiencing mistreatment from Sarah and later being sent away, Hagar was comforted by God in the wilderness and promised that her son Ishmael would become the father of a great nation. God’s message for Hagar (from Draw Near) was, “I see you. You are valuable to me. I love you. I accept you.” The important lesson Hadassah conveys is that we do not have value because of our accomplishments, but rather because we are beloved children of God. No type of rejection can undermine that.

This is a snapshot of the first four chapters; there are nine others. I found them all to be encouraging. She is a master at challenging the reader to renew their outlook.

Overall, I deeply appreciate the wisdom expressed throughout Draw Near by Hadassah Treu. I loved the solid scriptural foundation she provided. Whether you see the various trials and hardships as being orchestrated and controlled by God, or whether your view is more like mine, seeing these things as natural happenings in our world which God then works through to accomplish God’s purposes for us, we can all find valuable nuggets of encouragement in this work.

Discover a variety of helpful resources at the end of each chapter.

• Declarations–Hadassah summarizes the main points of the chapter in a bulleted list.
• Losses and gains–She lists these to help us shift our perspective.
• Reflection questions–These are great questions! Suitable for introspection, journaling, or group discussion.
• Meditation verses–Hadassah provides numerous carefully selected verses to contemplate in each area.
• Prayer–There’s a sample prayer to guide you, which is especially useful if you’re at a loss as to how to pray.

The book is thought provoking and insightful. Let me know if you decide to read it!

I find inspiration in Romans 8:28. This verse ties in well with the message of Draw Near by Hadassah Treu.

We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to God’s purpose.

Romans 8:28

This is one of my favorite verses. Notice it doesn’t say that God will spare us from heartache, loss, illness, or anguish. The promise is that God can use any situation to refine us, teach us, and help us grow, and that God does this in a way that is good. What a promise!

Understanding “all things”

We can interpret the phrase “in all things” to mean that every aspect of life, including joys and hardships, contributes to a greater good. This suggests a holistic view of life where every experience, whether positive or negative, has value and potential for growth and learning. We can view challenges not as punishments or mere obstacles but as opportunities for development and understanding.

The role of God

“God works all things together for good” is a beautiful concept. We can think of this as an invitation to partner with God in the work of justice, compassion, and healing. Instead of passively waiting for God to act, we can partner with God in bringing about good in the world. We are God’s hands and feet on Earth, working actively to create a more just, loving, and equitable world.

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• author recommendations in historical romance (sweet and clean)

Fondly,

Crysti