As challenging as it is, grief is a normal response to loss and the only way to deal with it is to go through it. However, you don’t have to face it alone. Friends, loved ones and therapists are here to help. For many, leaning into a Higher Power can also provide some guidance and comfort through these tough times.
The following is a list of books from Christian writers with a focus on grief and how to heal after a loss.
General Christian Books on Grief
1. When God & Grief Meet: Comfort and Courage for Your Journey
Author Lynn Eib, a longtime patient advocate and grief support group facilitator, shares her gift of encouragement in this heartening message for mourners.
“Where do you go with the heartache you can’t even put into words?
Whether you have lost a loved one to a prolonged illness or to an unexpected tragedy, it helps to encounter others who have walked a similar road and faced similar questions. When God & Grief Meet offers just that: Real-life stories that meet you in your sorrow and inspire you with the hope and strength to go on.”
“. . .as I share with you God’s words to the brokenhearted, I believe you will see that when God & grief meet, His power, peace and presence are bigger and more real than our uncertainties, sorrow, and loneliness.” (page 10 of When God & Grief Meet)
2. Grieving with Hope: Finding Comfort as You Journey through Loss
Practical and straightforward, yet warm and compassionate, Grieving with Hope clarifies the popular misconception that people move through five stages of grief. This will be an encouragement to many, as grieving people often think something is wrong with them when their grief doesn’t proceed neatly through stages. The reality is that grieving people jump back and forth between different emotions, sometimes wrestling with multiple emotions at once.
Full of hope, comfort, and faith, reviewers state it helps guide the reader through up to even seven stages of grieving in a very logical and easy to follow fashion. A component to the popular GriefShare series.
3. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering
The question of why God would allow pain and suffering in the world has vexed believers and nonbelievers for millennia. Pastor Timothy Keller, whose books have sold millions of copies to both religious and secular readers, takes on this enduring issue and shows that there is meaning and reason behind our pain and suffering, making a forceful and ground-breaking case that this essential part of the human experience can be overcome only by understanding our relationship with God.
With over one thousand positive reviews, readers claim there is something for everyone in this book, believer and nonbeliever alike. Tim Keller is no stranger to personal loss and suffering and as such, writes from a place of understanding and compassion.
Christian Books on Grieving the Loss of a Child
The loss of a child is a grief unlike any other. It is an out-of-order, traumatic event that can feel impossible to move forward through. It’s important to move gently through this grief process and not become immobile in the mourning phases. There is no timeline on grief, and this is one of the most devastating losses, but healing is possible.
The following books focus on how to deal with this painful loss, with Christian guidance and support from parents who have endured such a loss.
4. Shattered: Surviving the Loss of a Child
Bestselling author, hospice chaplain, and grief specialist Gary Roe uses his three decades of experience interacting with grieving parents to give us this heartfelt, easy-to-read, and intensely practical book. Gary has been featured on Focus on the Family, Dr. Laura, Beliefnet, the Christian Broadcasting Network, Wellness.com, and other major media and has well over 500 grief-related articles inprint.
Making an intensely painful topic readable is no small feat, however it is handled brilliantly in Shattered, providing the comfort that the reader is not alone, and others have survived this tragedy.
5. Life to Afterlife – Helping Parents Heal, The Book
The spiritual message to grieving parents in this book is that your child’s heavenly spirit is still with you. Stories of hope and healing from parents who’ve experienced signs and validations that, although their children’s earthly bodies are no longer here, their spirit is still lovingly connected to their parents.
“This book is not a sad one. Instead, it is filled with magical signs and validations that our children send us every day. Our kids in spirit are still right here. They are with us every step of the way and hold our hands as we walk this healing path. If you have a child who has transitioned, please join us as we navigate this new way of living, one filled with gratitude, compassion, and love. We are all in this together, and together, we will heal.”
Uplifting and compassionate, many reviewers state that this book has helped their hearts rest easier after they lost a child.
6. Blessings for a Grieving Mother: 52 Devotions From the Psalms
When author Joan Moss lost both of her daughters to cancer, she turned to the Bible for answers and comfort. While delving in The Word, she experienced a gentle spiritual awakening in the book of Psalms. The inspirations become devotions, the collection of devotions became a book to help grieving mothers everywhere.
Christian Books About Grieving the Loss of a Spouse
Losing a spouse is an earth shattering event that can leave one feeling numb, angry, and lost. Understanding how to move forward and pick up the pieces without your partner presents its own set of challenges while simultaneously going through the grief process can feel impossible. However, there is hope.
These books have a faith-based focus on grieving a spouse, understanding where the healthy levels of mourning lay, and how to care for one’s self after such a loss.
7. Comfort for the Grieving Spouse’s Heart: Hope and Healing After Losing Your Partner
Gary Roe makes our list again with Comfort for the Grieving Spouse’s Heart. He addresses with candor and feeling what it is like to lose the love of one’s life when a spouse dies. Readers claim that, after reading Roe’s work, they feel less alone and more understood.
With affirmations and journaling prompts throughout, the reader has the chance to express themselves and their grief in a safe environment.
8. A Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance: A Love Story of Grief, Trauma, Healing, and Faith
Tony Rodriguez was a compassionate and well-respected trauma therapist who devoted his life to helping survivors thrive, until his life was cut short in a tragic accident. Traumatized by the sudden loss of her husband and overwhelmed by the impact of his untimely death on their two sons, Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez was determined to blaze a path toward healing.
The book picks up in the days immediately following the author’s loss of her spouse and takes the reader on her journey through grief, suddenly being a single parent, looking for meaning in the tragedy and finally her spiritual redemption. A moving and brave memoir, readers related to Jennifer’s story in a deeply personal way.
9. The Tender Scar: Life After the Death of a Spouse
After the passing of his wife, retired physician Richard L. Mabry turned to his journal to help work through the loss. From the pages of that journal, The Tender Scar sprang forth, offering hope and guidance to others dealing with the same shattering loss.
Written from a biblical perspective, Mabry offers practical, easy-to-digest advice. With added chapters on how to eventually remarry and possibly have a blended family, Mabry handles these tough topics with grace and understanding.
Devotionals for Healing After a Loss
Daily devotionals often lend strength and hope in bite sized passages that are not overwhelming for someone going through the grieving process. Pulling words of wisdom from the Bible that are relevant to the struggles of the bereaved, they provide a light on a dark path. The following are a collection of daily devotionals that mourners have found inspiring and helpful in bringing solace following a loss.
10. 365 Days of Healing: Powerful Devotions & Prayers to Help You Recover & Keep You Well
God’s love for you and His healing spirit flow along each page of this daily devotional. Many reviewers talk about how author Mark Brazee’s simple yet powerful messages have helped them find a healing strength to lean into during hard times.
Full of hope and restorative messages, these devotionals help the reader see beyond the now and into what God wants for us through his Divine Plan.
11. 52-Week Devotional Journal for Grief: Prompts and Prayers for Navigating Loss
Writing prompts, meditations, and prayers in this devotional are geared toward processing the reader’s feelings of grief and loss in a healing manner. The author draws upon her own experiences of loss and healing as well as gathering the testimony of others. Many of the reviewers say reading and working through the exercises in this devotional are like having a best friend that understands exactly what you are going through and has been through it as well.
“Debbra’s book provides a path for the gentle exploration of the various facets of grief, encouraging the reader to choose or change the order of the topics presented. Debbra presents an entry for each week, introducing an aspect of grief paired with a beautifully-chosen Bible verse. She then suggests ways to examine and work through each topic, offering prompts to help one think about and process the subject. The combination is very good and very powerful.”
12. Grief One Day at a Time: 365 Meditations to Help You Heal After Loss
The format of this book is broken into three parts each day: a quote, then an explanation that delves deeper into the particular topic, and a final summary in a sentence at the end. In an unhurried manner, the devotionals encourage those that are grieving to feel their feelings and understand that the dark times won’t last forever.
“‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat. ‘We’re all mad here.'” — Lewis Carroll
Most of us feel crazy at some point in our grief journeys. After all, it’s a mad place to be. We don’t want to be here, but here we are.
The really crazy thing is, crazy is normal in grief. Loss upends us, and we realize that our lives will never fully return to the mostly stable, sensical version of reality we thought we inhabited. Now we know: It’s human existence that’s crazy — not our grief.
Today I’ll remember that we’re all mad here. Beauty, love, and joy live in the madness too.
-Excerpted from Grief One Day at a Time
How Talking to a Therapist or Grief Counselor Can Help
Working through grief is a process that everyone, at one time or another, has had to deal with. These books are a wonderful first step on that path out of the pain. Support from friends, loved ones and those who have experienced loss can also help mend a broken heart. Finding a qualified therapist to help one work through the more difficult aspects of grief and loss is invaluable. An online directory of therapists can provide you with a grief counselor who will meet you where you are and help you get to where you want to be.
