Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God by Sheila Walsh
I'll admit that I had low expectations for this book before I began reading it. I'd never heard of Sheila Walsh but the title was curious to me.
Mrs. Walsh has an engaging writing style and her book followed a good outline going from one Bible example to the next as she combined her personal story of depression and trust in God with saints from the Word and their stories of trust in the Lord. Unfortunately, her scripture references are from The Message paraphrase more than from trustworthy translations.
At one point, the author mentioned that some of her friends felt she demonstrated a lack of faith and strength in her Christian walk when she agreed to entering a psychiatric hospital and then went on to take some mood-altering drugs. I happen to agree with that; so her testimony of how she learned to trust in God in spite of her depression was tainted from the first chapter.
The book has a good point; trust isn't just an act of faith on our part. Trust depends on the object of our faith. She gives an example early in the book of herself as a little girl trusting someone to push her on a swing. In the end, she goes back to that example and says she'd tell that little girl on the swing to trust the Lord for her future. The book could be a lot more concise and still get to the point of focusing our affections on the Lord rather than on our circumstances. But, instead, the author gives ten examples from scripture and from her own personal experiences and drones on and on for over 200 pages about the basic principle of trusting in God alone. I don't believe the book lived up to the book cover's description.
Perhaps a weak believer might find some helpful suggestions in this book. It's rather simplistic in its message.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)