Guide to Embracing the Ultimate Cure for Loneliness
Tiffany Bluhm Invites Readers to
Experience Healing and Companionship
Loneliness is on the
rise in our society and impacting people of all ages. Research has shown that
it increases stress and high blood pressure, weakens blood flow and immune
systems, and is linked to mental disorders, depression, and even early death.
It isn’t something to ignore, but rather it’s a signal for us to pay attention.
Unfortunately, its negative associations, such as a weakness perception or
feeling of having poor social skills, impede people from being honest about
where they stand. To make matters worse, it has contagious tendencies, and our
social networking culture makes it viral. To break the cycle, we need to
understand what loneliness does and the behavior it encourages, seek to be more
positive and discerning, and retrain how we think about people. For persons of
faith, that includes re-evaluating what loneliness has led us to believe about
God and our relationship with him. The debut book, Never Alone: Exchanging Your
Tender Hurts for God’s Healing Grace (Abingdon Press/February 6,
2018/$16.99), by Bible teacher and speaker Tiffany Bluhm serves as a guide to help women do just that.
Walking through life without
experiencing the pain and loneliness of betrayal, shame, guilt, loss, judgment,
or rejection is impossible. These wounds can shape our views of ourselves,
others, and God and even make us question if we are worthy of love and
acceptance. Whether old or new, heartache can convince us no one understands or
cares. Yet Jesus tells us a different story. In Never Alone, Bluhm
offers hope and encouragement that as our plans, hearts, and lives change, God
is there. What we might have mistaken for his absence was only our mind
questioning his goodness and grace. She reveals the depth and healing power of
Jesus’ unconditional love for us and how we will never escape his love.
“While every season brings fresh mercy
and unforeseen misery, the good Lord is available to each of us,” says Bluhm.
“The same Lord who sat with harlots, beggars, and the blind sits with you and
me. He’s patient and kind. Strong and brave. We might test his limits, doubt
his faithfulness, or walk away, but he is always good to us, no matter what. I
am not alone. You are not alone.”
Bluhm encourages women to:
·
Claim
their value, worth, and role in the Kingdom.
·
Recognize
they’re dearly loved and unconditionally accepted.
·
Find
healing from rejection, disapproval, betrayal, abandonment, and other hurts.
·
See
how the past affects our relationship with God and others.
·
Exchange
shame and guilt for freedom.
·
Lean
into desperate moments.
·
Gain
a holy perspective through gratitude.
·
Find
belonging through belief and courage.
“The
words of this book are an offering in hopes to encourage your heart no matter
what season of life you are in,” Bluhm adds. “They share about the God who not
only gave us life but also gave us his Son as our first companion, the One for
whom our soul longs. I have discovered without a doubt that life is hard, but
Christ is sovereign. He is near.”
For
those wishing to dig deeper into what the Bible teaches about this subject,
Bluhm has also created the Never Alone: 6 Encounters with Jesus to Heal
Your Deepest Hurts Bible study that explores the story of six hurting
women in the Gospels.
Advance
Praise
“Have you ever had your heart broken? Have you
ever felt abandoned, unloved? If you have, you will find a friend in these
pages. With disarming transparency, Tiffany walks us through her own heartbreak
to the glorious realization of this truth: she has never been alone, and
neither have we.”
~ Sheila Walsh,
author of In The Middle of the Mess
“In
her powerful book, Never Alone, Tiffany reaches down a hand of been-there hope to those who
still wonder if anyone sees their aching loneliness—to the ones who live with a
perpetual sense of being on the outside, of looking in through an impenetrable
barrier at an unreachable place of true belonging.”
~ Jodi Detrick, author of The
Jesus-Hearted Woman
About
the author
Tiffany Bluhm is the author of Never Alone and
its companion Bible study. She is a speaker and writer who is passionate about
helping women come to know their value and purpose because of a loving,
redeeming God. In a style that speaks to women right where they are, she shares
insights from a life spent chasing after Jesus.
“I’ve always had a bleeding heart for women. It developed
into walking alongside single mamas, teen mamas, sex industry workers, women in
jail, sisters in brothels, and mothers living in the slums of Kolkata. It has
been said that women are the most oppressed people group in the world, and I
believe that women, given the chance to thrive with Christ and others, will be
the revolutionaries we’ve been waiting for,” Bluhm shares.
She speaks regularly at conferences and events and writes for
a number of websites, print publications, and popular blogs, including the
YouVersion Bible app, Deeply Rooted
Magazine, and ScaryMommy.com.
Bluhm lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and two
sons.
Read her blog at www.TiffanyBluhm.com. She is also active on Facebook (TiffanyABluhm), Twitter (@tiffanybluhm), and Instagram (@tiffanybluhm).
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