If you read THIS post from January, you know that my one word for 2017 is AUDACITY. The word, audacity, kept popping up everywhere I looked and I knew God was trying to get my attention. I had already noticed the word in several different places when one day I saw a post on Facebook in one of the groups I am a member of. The post was asking if anyone was interested in reviewing a book called, “The Audacity of Faith” by Sam Belony. So, of course, I jumped on that opportunity. And I was not disappointed.
Here is my review of “The Audacity of Faith.”
First of all, let me just say that I learned so much just from reading the Table of Contents:
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Faith Is the Secret to Pleasing God
0. The Greatest Five-Letter Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
STAGE ONE: INFANCY
Faith Is the Currency of Life
1. The Power to Swing God’s Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Faith Is the Conduit for God’s Grace
2. Reaching with a Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
STAGE TWO: MATURITY
Faith Needs Construction
3. Divine Inconvenience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Faith Sees Life through God’s Lenses
4. God’s 20/20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
STAGE THREE: INTIMACY
Faith Begets Faith
5. Mustard Seed Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Faith Breeds Compassion
6. The Scandal of Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
STAGE FOUR: CULMINATION
Faith Gives Audacity
7. Giants of Our Lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Faith Leaves a Mark
8. God Placed a Bet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Faith Is Counted as Righteousness
9. The End of Our Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
What I noticed first is that FAITH was broken down into stages. I had never thought of it that way before, but now it makes total sense. It’s not that we either have faith or we don’t have faith. We can have a little bit of faith, and then that faith can grow and mature. Just this little bit of revelation is so freeing, don’t you think?
The author has a nice mix of teaching, story-telling and personal experience intertwined throughout, including very vivid word pictures and analogies. I particularly like the way he recounts several different stories from the Bible. The book, “The Audacity of Faith”, is very easy and enjoyable to read, as well as being quite enlightening.
One of my favorite chapters is (of course) Chapter 7 – Faith Gives Audacity – Giants of Our Lives. The author starts out by defining audacity and by describing what a person is like, who has audacity. Then he takes you through several Bible stories which contain characters that had audacity.
I love this quote from page 148:
True greatness is the ability to live in the shadow of God’s wings and view life from His perspective. You cannot lose, cannot falter when God is your energy source.
The audacity that comes from faith does not take us away from reality. Instead it reveals the greater reality that God is sovereignly in charge, that He is greater than any giant you could ever face in life. Terrible life circumstances don’t scare Him, and when He stands next to you, they should not scare you either. Insurmountable ordeals do not impress Him, nor should they impress you. Before the awesomeness of the “‘God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome’” (Deuteronomy 10:17) all of our giants, no matter how impressive, become midgets.
I highly recommend “The Audacity of Faith” by Sam Belony. It will inspire you to continue growing in faith, without making you feel guilty for having only a “little” faith or for being in the infancy stage of faith.
As I mentioned before, I received a free pdf copy of this book to review.
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