Thursday, April 30, 2015

Praying Over God's Promises by Thomas R. Yeakley

Being an author myself and having proofed drafts of other writer's books, there is one common thing I see in many books...the beginning is rough and by chapter two or three, the author finds their voice and takes off.  I had that experience with this book, Praying Over God's Promises: The Lost Art of Taking Him at His Word by Thomas R. Yeakley.

After reading the first two chapters of this book, I almost gave up on it.  It felt very stuffy, forced and overly confident.  Writers have to walk a balance beam between being confident and being humble and too much in either direction can turn off readers in an instant.  I was afraid this author was going in that direction, about to crash.

But I was glad I stuck it out, though, because the rest of the book was a delight to read and one that I found of great value.  Claiming God's promises in our life is one of those subjects that many avoid because 1). many in the prosperity gospel movement have made a mockery of why God promises us things in the first place, and 2). the things that God promises are often so amazing that counting on Him to deliver can seem foolish to one who has little experience in that area.  This book does a very good job of proclaiming the good news of what God has promised us in His word and how to claim those promises, without traipsing into either of those two pitfalls.

As you read, it becomes easier to forgive the stodginess of the first few chapters as you realize what a wonderful how-to resource this is.  It starts by answering what a promises is and giving the theology behind promises, examples of people throughout history who have claimed God's promises and were successful, and then show how to claim those promises, walk through those promises in our Christian walk, and how to avoid the pitfalls and abuses of claiming God's promises to us.  Yeakley then ends with a closeup at the life of Abraham and how his story is one of claiming God's promises and God honoring what He promised to him.  It is an excellent, short and to the point manual on the topic and is a book that will be in my library for a long time.

I recommend this book to any Christian looking to learn about what exactly God has promised us as His children and who wants to claim and live out those promises in their walk with Christ.  This book is excellent for a new Christian as well as a well-seasoned believer.

I was provided this book free of charge from the publisher in return for my honest review.

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