★★★★★ 5
You can experience joy!
Format: Paperback, Format: Paperback
What is joy? How does it compare to happiness? From where does joy come? How can we experience joy every day despite the pain and sorrow that we all experience?
Stasi Eldredge writes honestly and poignantly from places of pain and sorrow in her own life - but doesn't leave us there. She leads us into hope, into beauty and into a new depth of life in God. She teaches us how to cultivate joy in really practical - and achievable - ways.
I was especially struck by her walking through St. Patrick's Breastplate - an ancient prayer - and how I can turn from a place of failure and shame based on my performance to the King and His character and hide myself in Him.
"I need mercy, and I know it. In that knowing comes a great gift. I turn my heart again to my kind and understanding God and confess to Him that I need mercy. His answer swamps my heart with a too-good-to-be-true reality that leads to a crumbling of hopelessness and shame. My self-loathing collapses into His love. My self-condemnation melts into His arms that welcome and soothe. I have blown it. The blowing now has become the wind of the Holy Spirit. Ruah is here. His breath shepherds my heart into my Father's, and there mercy triumphs over judgment."
I encourage you to read this book. God will use it to restore your soul, to bring water to your dry and weary soul, and to help you find rest in His strong arms. You will not feel condemned, but encouraged. I found hope in its pages.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2018
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