Book Review: Fearless
Imagine your life without fear.
This is the challenge given by Max Lucado in his most recent book, Fearless. One need not look very far in our current society to find those who are selling fear. It seems that every form of media daily uses our own worries against us. Max Lucado gives a simple reminder to Christians that we are meant to live lives of faith rather than fear.
Lucado begins by asking the question, Why are we afraid? and continues by suggesting thirteen types of fear that can stop us in our tracks when we forget the words uttered so many times by our Lord and echoed in recent days by the late Pope John Paul II, Be Not Afraid!
Some of those fears include the fear of not mattering, not protecting my kids, death, God not being real, and global calamity. Each chapter of this book had something of value to offer, but I was struck most by the chapter devoted to the fear of disappointing God entitled, God’s Ticked Off At Me. Lucado focuses part of this chapter on the story told in Matthew Chapter 9 of the healing of the paralytic. Jesus’ words to the paralytic were, Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven. Lucado draws the reader’s attention to the fact that more than anything, it is sin that can paralyze one with fear, the fear that God’s infinite mercy will run out. Through the story of Adam and Eve, Lucado reminds us that,
Fear, mismanaged, leads to sin. Sin leads to hiding. Since we’ve all sinned, we all hide, not in bushes, but in eighty-hour workweeks, temper tantrums, and religious busyness. We avoid contact with God.
Fearless calls upon Christians to embrace the freedom that comes from faith and reliance in God’s grace. I highly recommend it to those in search of an antidote to the anxiety shared by so many in our world today.
About The Author
Comments