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40 Days of Grace: Discovering God’s Liberating Love By Rich Miller Book Review




In 40 Days of Grace, Rich Miller explored the fundamental concept of grace given by a loving Creator. Rich Miller described that when Jesus died on the cross for our sins and we repented and asked for forgiveness. This very act of sacrifice lead to grace being introduced into the world. The book is written in the form of a 40 day devotional and divided into six weeks. The weekly topics include “Amazing Grace”, “Canceling the Guilt Trip”, “From Disgrace to Grace”, “From Fear to Faith”, “The Power of Humility”, “The Grace-Rest Life”. Each day has a personal story demonstrating an aspect of grace, “a thought to chew on” – a sentence to think about, “a truth to remember” – a scripture verse to mediate on, “a question to mull over”, and “talking it over with God” – a prayer to pray.

 

In one of the day’s devotional, Rich Miller revealed a personal story about struggling with guilt over his sins. About a year after he began a follower of Christ and was saved, he was in college drinking with his friends. When his brother surprising arrived and handled him a Christian book for his birthday. Rich felt guilty for his actions but soon turned back to drinking to numb his emotions. His so called friends wrapped him in a bed sheet and threw him in an elevator and pressed all the buttons where every floor could witness his drunken state. A few hours later, he managed to make it back to his room and his buddies took the notation to pick him up off his bed and shove his head into the wall. Then his roommate also stated, “Do you really think this is glorifying God?” (Page 71). Overall, he later learnt that God adopted him and chose him (See Ephesians 1:5-8) and God already has provided us grace and forgiveness of our innumerable sins. The blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross has declared that we are forgiven for our sins by his unmerited grace.

 

My favorite story that Rich Miller shared was day 6, “Grace Works”. Rich Miller noticed that his son, Brian was having trouble sharing a room with his younger adopted brother, Luke. Luke struggled with understanding boundaries and he would constantly invaded Brian’s space. When Rich’s three other children were playing a game, Luke would destroy the game and they eventually begin to shut the door where Luke couldn’t mess up the game. As parents, they had to address the issue and they told their kids that they couldn’t treat their brother that way. Brian still struggled with sharing a room with him. Rich came up with an idea and he told Brian to imagine Luke sitting there listening to him. He told him to get out the anger and the hurt and then proceed to forgiveness. Afterwards, Brian took the initiative and went and played with his brother for 45 minutes for the first time ever. This gave me great hope and I wonder if we did that as adults and forgave quickly what would happen. Grace could rapidly change our relationships with others!

 

I would recommend this magnificent book to anyone who is needing a refresher course on grace. This devotional was very entertaining to read and each day was only about three pages each. I immensely loved the prayer that was at the end of each day and they were simple and consistent with the message content. I love the way Rich Miller connected all of the stories back to undeserved grace and forgiveness. One of my favorite day devotions was entitled, “A Return to Dignity”. This one Rich Miller encouraged readers who feel ashamed to proclaim out loud these helpful paragraphs regarding sexual abuse or rape, and emotional abuse. These statements relinquishes the lies that they may have believed about themselves. I also love how he used scriptures to assist in readers finding freedom from the lies of satan. If you’re looking for a book that will convey to you the importance of grace, then this book is the one you need to read!

 

 

"I received this book free from the publisher from Kregel Publications book review bloggers program."
 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy of 40 Days of Grace, then check it out on Amazon.com:

 

1 comments:

Andrew,

I have recently written a book about discipleship and was wondering if you would consider reviewing it?

My name is Robby Gallaty and the title of my book is: Growing Up: How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples. After surrendering my life to Christ in 2002, I was presented with the opportunity to be discipled by David Platt, New York Times best selling author of Radical and Follow Me. He describes our time together in the Foreword of the book.

You can learn more about my book at http://growingupbook.com or visit Amazon: http://amzn.to/18N4PPO.

Many people have graciously endorsed the book already: Kay Arthur, Robert Coleman, Jerry Vines, Eric Geiger, Ed Stetzer, Tim Brister, John Ankerberg, J.D. Greear, Bill Hull, Greg Ogden, Johnny Hunt, Larry Osborne, Derwin Gray, Chris Adsit, Russell Moore, Danny Akin, Sam Rainer, Bobby Harrington, Tony Merida, and Clayton King.

I can provide it to you as a digital file immediately. If you would like a paperback copy after reading it, I will be happy to mail you one as soon as I receive the printed copies.

Of course, I understand that you are under zero obligation to review my book, and if you do review it, you can leave a good or a bad review. I am simply asking for you to prayerfully consider it. Thank you in advance. I look forward to your response.

Many Blessings,

Robby

 

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