Book Review – Fearless, Max Lucado, 2009

To be honest, I wasn’t all that keen on this book when I first saw it. I imagined that it would be like just another self-help book when we need books about how we can give and show God’s love to the world. However, knowing of Max Lucado’s high regard, I gave it a go. Upon going through this book, my initial response just proved the old adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover (or in my case, by its title!).

As I began reading, I realised how much I wanted to be a person of faith and not fear. I truly felt inspired. The truth that this is a book for our times is evidenced in the fact – which Lucado states – that ordinary children today are more fearful than psychiatric patients were in the 1950s, and that, for the first time since the end of the Second World War, parents expect that life for the next generation will be worse than it was for them.

By taking the reader through many of the most common fears that a believer faces, the message that Lucado constantly reiterates is that you are special. His knowledge of the topic is clearly substantiated in such statements such as ‘fear, at its centre, is a loss of control’, and ‘fear has never been famous for its logic’. Another fear that Lucado relates is the fear that God is not real – that our convictions about God are wrong. This reminds me of a line from a Leslie Phillips song which says ‘shattered convictions I thought were reflecting you’. How many of us secretly hold that fear?

Perhaps the essence of this book is best summed up by a quote from it:

“Courage does not panic; it prays. Courage does not bemoan; it believes. Courage does not languish; it listens. It listens to the voice of God calling through Scripture, “Fear not!” It hears Christ’s voice comforting through the hospital corridors, graveyards, and war zones.”

Ending with a useful Discussion Guide which can be used for individuals or small groups, this is a book that has the potential to change the lives of many, which is what a fearful world today needs more than ever.

by Nils von Kalm

http://soulthoughts.com