A Book Review- Fearless by Max Lucado

Buy		Read

I received an email from Thomas Nelson publishing about a month ago offering me a chance to read and review Max Lucado's newest book Fearless.  I was very excited to read something by Max Lucado.  Its been years since I had picked up one of his books and was eager to read his thoughts on being fearless.  I did feel a little pressure on this book review since it is  suppose to be posted on my blog on the 8th of September.  I just KNEW the baby would come before I was able to finish the book or the review!  Thankfully, I was able to finish the book in plenty of time. 

My initial thought on this book is that it was a good sized book and it was self "helpy".... which to me means that its gonna take me longer to read.  I am not a very fast reader....not super slow.....but when it comes to self help type books, I read even slower, but once I got into this book, it was very good.  It kept my interest and it was FULL of wonderful reminders of how much God loves us and how the Bible is packed FULL of reminders that we should not be afraid or fearful for our lives or about "what ifs".  This book came to me at a wonderful time as I sit here, day by day, waiting and dreading and being fearful of the "what ifs" while bringing a new baby into the world.  Our world is so full of unknowns and what ifs.  Will this baby be healthy?  Will the c-section recovery be worse than last time?  Will my family get the flu and my baby be harmed?  On and on..... What Max Lucado did so beautifully in this book was take the truths from the Bible and put it in a very easy reading and entertaining book that will remind us that God is bigger than any thing that we fear and face.    I told my mother today that I could go page by page, the book is full of pages that I have ear marked with my favorite thoughts or Scripture reminders, and list off my favorite parts.... that would be a boring book review, but if you'll just humor me for a second, here are a few of the things that really made an impact on me. 

In one of the first chapers, Max Lucado reminds us of a truth found in one of my favorite Bible verses found in Psalms 139:15 - you were "fearfully and wonderfully made".  Max continues- "He can't stop thinking about you!"  How awesome is that thought?  "We were His idea, his Masterpiece".  In the doctors office, I had to close the book and think about that page.....  Me, Lu, I was FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made... by the Master's hands?  Think about a project you do around your house....weren't you proud once you finished it?  Even with me, if there are mistakes, I am still proud that I FINISHED it.   Usually with me its something that has taken a lot of time and wasn't easy.....  I smile.  I am giddy.  I am so glad I'm done with it and can look back and say that I did it.  Maybe God was the same way.  As he took great detail on each and every one of us.  Can you imagine getting to chose the eye color and face shape and how this person was going to look as they smiled?  I bet God had a blast.  We are HIS creation and He enjoyed making us.  How can you not LOVE this person that went to great detail about us?  Doesn't that fill your heart and make you want to smile and dance and sing that you know the LOVE of that Creator?

Towards the middle of the book, Max Lucado begins to dig deep into worry and how a simple "fretful" thought becomes, in his words, a "toxic panic".  He also reminds us that "Jesus doesn't condemn legitimate concerns for responsibilities, but rather the continuous mind set that dismisses God's presence."   This is the best part- "  Destructive anxiety subtracts God from the future, faces uncertainities with no faith, tallies up the challenges of the day without entering God into the equation."  Did that hurt?  Man!  It definitely convicted me.  When I worry, I'm totally losing sight on God and His faithfulness.  Last year in BSF, we studied the life of Moses..... if you ever wanna learn about the destructiveness of worry, you gotta read those few books of the Bible..... and we learned that worrying was a SIN.  Why didn't we learn that in Sunday School growing up?  Why wasn't that a popular topic in the pulpit each Sunday morning sermon?  Worry is apart of our EVERY DAY life, right?  We worry about being late.  We worry about what we eat or what we wear or just constantly something.  Like I said earlier in the post, I worry about every little detail of every day....  Worry shouldn't be something so significant in my day.  I should bring my concerns to God and LEAVE them at His feet.

A lot of the book focused or made reference to the economic situation that we are faced with right now.  With job loss on the rise and the economic outlook being so grim, you could tell that Max Lucado was definitely trying to answer some questions and put people's fears to ease.  I love this statement in Chapter 7- "As followers of God, you and I have a huge asset.  We know everything is going to turn out all right.  Christ hasn't budged from His throne and Romans 8:28 hasn't evaporated from the Bible."  If we choose to truth our Father, then even the worst case scenario is death, right?  And we go to live with Him, right?  Hard to swallow and I don't think I'm that far in my walk with Christ to be able to say that I can do this easily.

This book was PACKED full of reminders and reassurances of why God is worthy of our trust and love.  He is faithful and Max Lucado did an absolutely fantastic job of picking stories and Scriptures to help make this book such a wonderful addition to anyone's library.  I have already offered this book to several people and hope that its an encouragement to others like it was to me.  Self help books aren't "fun" reads for me, but this one has quickly become one of my favorite books.  I think I could read it again and still be able to find other parts that stick out to me, that I missed the first go around.





And a big thanks to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to review this book!