Andrew Smith's Blog

My name is Andrew. Come and have a look inside my life and watch me share what is on my heart.

Praying for America: 40 Inspiring Stories and Prayers for Our Nation By Dr. Robert Jeffress Book Review




In Praying for America, Robert Jeffress explored how to pray for America and how we as a nation we have forgotten God, and how we need to turn back to God. He explained how we have lost the love of loving God, ourselves, and we have stopped loving our neighbors. He revealed the truth in Psalms 9:17 that the nations that don’t believe and love God will perish. He explored the history of Abraham Lincoln and in 1863, he issued a National Day of Prayer and fasting after Fredericksburg during the Civil War. Lincoln believed that event was the result of America’s sins and how they have forgotten God. In the book, he explored the topics of: God’s will, religious freedom, our president and leaders, troops, law enforcement, debt problems, education, pure sexuality, fatherless children, our jobs, and much more. Each chapter contained a story from history, a prayer, and a scripture verse. 





One of my favorite chapters was the chapter on the voiceless. Robert shared the story of Gianna and how in 1976 she was conceived by a teenage mother and her boyfriend. Her mother decided to have an abortion and he described the procedure that normally happens. Gianna ended up surviving at 29 weeks was born and weighed 2.75 pounds. The abortionist wasn’t there yet and the nurse had her transferred to the hospital. She did suffer a lack of oxygen and she developed cerebral palsy. She was placed in emergency foster care and Penny ended up raising her and praying over her life. She was able to learn to walk without the use of a walker or leg braces and she ran two marathons. He shared how in America we murder an average of three thousand babies and thousands more are killed with oral contraceptives. He encouraged readers to pray for our leaders and for us to become the voice for the voiceless and to reach out to pregnant mothers and help them. 





I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is ready to pray for America and that should be everyone in this nation. As we all know, we are still struggling with covid-19 and protests and injustice going on in our nation. I also liked how he dealt with the topic of corrupt cops and he made a point that we need to dealt with the on a case by case basic, same as if it was a bad pastor or parent. He also shared how we need to pray for them and to obey law enforcement and only to disobey them if they are causing us to do something sinful. I believe this book was written for a time as this to where we can all learn to humble ourselves and pray. I immensely loved how he covered a number of topics from our leaders to our own family and our community. I loved how he included countless stories in the book and he taught readers history and what we can take away from it and how to pray and change it for the future. 





"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords for my honest review.” 






If you would like to purchase a copy of Praying for America, check it out on Amazon.com:


10 Prayers Secrets: Supernatural Power for Your Breakthrough By Hakeem Collins Book Review





In 10 Prayers Secrets, Hakeem Collins explored the topic of prayer and how prayer can change things and how we can release our faith. The book is divided into two parts first he discussed ten secrets found in prayer and then the second part contained a 30-day devotional. Some of the secrets included, “discover your passion, anticipate your breakthrough, practice Jesus’ prayer model, be a friend of God, forgive, unleashing chain-breaking praise”, and much more. He begins the book by exploring how to discover your passion and God’s plan for your life. He explains how we need to have passion to pursue our purpose in life. We can all become like children in prayer and believe and have childlike faith. Another area, he explored was waiting on God’s timing and he looked at the story of Habakkuk and how he had to wait on God and he kept asking for help and God answered that the vision would come to pass at the appointed time and it won’t be late. Hakeem shared countless scriptures about patience and how not be anxious about the future or present. We need to pray and give everything to God and to give thanksgiving. 




I would recommend this awesome book to anyone who is ready to go deeper in their prayer life and they are looking for a new devotional book. I liked how the book was inbound in a leather cover and it’s a smaller style book, which makes it easier to carry around. I immensely liked how Hakeem looked at ten secrets we can learn about prayer and how we can pray to receive our breakthrough and how to overcome what could be hindering our prayers from being answered. I liked how each devotional contained a scripture verse, a short story, reflection questions, prayer declarations based on scriptures, a prayer, scripture study, and activation. One of my favorite days discussed expecting the unexpected and walking in faith and believing that God can do the impossible in our lives. If you’re looking for a prayer book, then read this amazing book! 



"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.” 





If you would like to purchase a copy of 10 Prayer Secrets, check it out on Amazon.com:


Victory Over the Darkness: Realize the Power of Your Identity in Christ by Neil T. Anderson Book Review




Victory Over the Darkness is back with an updated edition of his classic book. In this book, Neil explored the power of darkness, how we can renew our minds, and discover who we are in Christ. He begins the book by sharing how he didn’t know if his wife was going to live or die and they struggled with this for 15 months. She was sick and no doctor could determine what was wrong. Medical bills were piling up and it cost them their house. They had to depend on God’s help during this crisis. During this, he founded Freedom in Christ Ministries. He learned that God is the only one who can free people and that people don’t know who they are in Christ. People are struggling with many different things and they don’t even begin to comprehend that they are a child of God. In the book, he looked at the creation and Adam and Eve and the fall. He looked at all of the negative effects that they suffered because of them choosing to sin. Jesus came to give us life with Him and to have eternal life. In the meantime, we will all face satan’s temptations and he has come to steal and kill and destroy our lives. Neil has included a special “Who I Am in Christ” chart filled with scriptures to remind readers who they are. There is 34 total scripture references and statements. Some of these included, we are God’s child, friend, brought with a price, redeemed and forgiven, free from condemnation, salt and light of the earth, God’s temple, seated with Christ in the heavenly realm, and much more. And he encouraged believers to believe what the Bible tells us who we are and to live free and not bound in chains of addictions. 




I would recommend this awesome book to anyone who is ready to find true freedom from satan’s power and they are ready to discover who they are in Christ. I immensely liked how he included countless scriptures about what the Bible has declared about us. I really enjoyed the chapter on winning the battle in our minds and how we can truly renew our minds. He shared how a habit only takes six weeks to form and then it becomes a stronghold on our lives. I liked how Neil shared how we can renew our minds and break the power of strongholds on our lives. We can choose to believe the lies of satan or we can choose to believe what God has declared over us. I liked how he instructed believers on how we can break the power of satan’s lie and the way to do this is to expose his lies with the truth found in God’s written Word. This is the first time I have read this book and it’s one that believers need to get and to dive into who they are in Christ. If people would, I believe we would see an increase of unconditional love and the love of Christ would overflow into every area of people’s life and people would receive and walk in freedom. 





"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.” 





If you would like to purchase a copy of Victory Over the Darkness, check it out on Amazon.com:




The Pursuit of God: The Definitive Classic By A.W. Tozer Edited by James L. Snyder Book Review



In The Pursuit of God, James L. Snyder has helped reedit a book by A.W. Tozer. He begins the book by sharing how his own life was changed by reading this book when he was fifteen years old. He admits he loved to read novels and didn’t care for Christian books. A woman introduced the book to him and kept asking him how he liked it. Eventually, he did read the book because she wouldn’t stop asking how he liked it. He shared how he reread the book many times and even did an essay on it for school. He met someone who knew Dr. Tozer personally and he took notes from them and he listened to his audio teaching and read all his books. He went on to write a book proposal and now this is the book. This book contains some background of A.W. Tozer life story and his book of The Pursuit of God. 




The book talks about how we are supposed to pursue God. He explained how many of us are in religious complexity and we are looking for other things to fill our soul and satisfy our hearts and they never do fill us up. Christ wants us to long after him and to get to know Him completely. He shared how we pursue God because He decided to pursue and love us first. At the end of our lives, all we will need is God. He explained the truths found in looking at Abraham’s life and the promises of God. He had Isaac at an old age and God told him to offer his own son’s life up as a sacrifice. God stopped him from doing that. He wanted to remove the importance he felt of having his son. He wanted Abraham to worship Him alone and to let Him be the center of his life. Tozer explained how we must also give up our loved ones and believe that God came to save. We must also turn over our talents and gifts that God have instilled in us. We are blessed in our processing of having nothing. Throughout the book, readers will learn about the different key lessons we can find in pursuing God and knowing Christ. 





I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a theologian book and it was written many years ago- nearly seventy years. Readers can still benefit from this preacher’s teaching and they will be able to recognize how Tozer’s life was changed and how he hopes generations lives will also change after reading this book and growing in their relationship with Christ. I immensely enjoyed how in this new edition Snyder looked at the background of Tozer life and how he came to know Christ and how his life was changed and how he loved his alone time with God. This was the first time I have ever read this book and I enjoyed learning about how God is trying to actively pursue us and how God can truly satisfy our souls. There is ton of lessons and scriptures describing the power of God’s word and how we can know Christ enclosed in this book. 




"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.” 





If you would like to purchase a copy of The Pursuit of God, check it out on Amazon.com:


The Abundance Mind-Set: Success Starts Here by Joel Osteen Book Review



In the Abundance Mind-Set, Joel Osteen has written a brand-new book on how to change our thoughts and to think positive things. He begins the book by asking readers what the vision for their lives is and where do they see themselves in the future and their families. He reminded readers of the importance of what the scriptures declares about our thoughts and as a man thinks of himself so he is. He encouraged readers to picture good things and have an abundance mind-set and to see themselves accomplishing their dreams, overcoming obstacles, addictions, seeing their families restored, seeing themselves blessed, and seeing themselves married and having children. He looked at the Israelites and how they lived in slavery and in the land of barely enough and they had to journey all the way into the promised land. This land contained milk and honey and it was always flowing and they had plenty. They eventually arrived in their abundance, but they had to face many challenges before they got there. 




In the book, he shared many stories from people he met over the years and how God was able to exceed their expectations and they walked into abundance. One of the stories was from a single mother of three children who immigrated from Europe. She applied for a job as a secretary at a university and she had a lot of competition. The interviewer was very rough and wasn’t friendly and she was afraid she might not be able to pass the 5-minute typing test. But through it, she believed in God’s power. When the bell went off at the same time, the phone rang and the lady conducting the test got distracted. She was tempted to stop but the lady who was conducting the test told her to keep going that wasn’t her bell. She ended up typing another five minutes and she got the job. One touch of God’s favor allowed her to pass the typing test. She was able to send all of her three kids to the college for free. 




I would recommend this awesome book to anyone who is ready to change their thoughts and they want to have an abundance mindset. The book is a shorter book by Joel Osteen and it only contains 5 chapters. This book was made in a smaller book where readers can take it with them anywhere, they go. It would make an excellent devotional reading and this book is meant to be read over and over again where readers can learn to change their thoughts daily. I immensely enjoyed the chapter on, “Turn Up the Power” because this one discussed how important it is to keep God first in our lives and how he will put a commanded blessing on our lives. Joel Osteen shared how we need to remind ourselves positive things and to have faith that God can make our dreams come to pass. He explained the power of the magnet and how we can apply this concept to our lives. We have to focus on the positive and believe that God is attracting good things for our lives. He shared how we need to be believing healing is coming for us, favor is headed our way, abundance is looking for us, the right person is trying to find us. We don’t need to focus on the wrong things such as bad things are going to occur, we will never get married, our finances will never improve, we won’t ever get well, and our dreams won’t come to pass. I liked how Joel Osteen encouraged believers to seek God and let the blessings seek after us and we don’t have to be exhausted and frustrated and catch after them. If readers will apply the principles and the lessons, included in this book, we would see a rise of positive, abundance thinking. 



"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords for my honest review.” 





If you would like to purchase a copy of The Abundance Mind-Set, check it out on Amazon.com:



Healing Family Relationships: A Guide to Peace and Reconciliation by Rob Reinow Book Review




In Healing Family Relationships, Rob Reinow explored the wounds that exist in our families and how we can obtain healing. In the book, some of the topics he discussed was, “forgiveness, prayer, repentance, listening, acceptance, spiritual warfare, boundaries, patience, healing through the generations, and much more”. In the book, he opened up about his own family issues. He admits his relationship with his father wasn’t the best. His mother was his father’s fourth wife. His father was his father’s second wife. They ended up divorcing when he was a teenager due to his father infidelity. He revealed in the book how God was able to transform his father and their relationship later in the book. He started the book by exploring the topic of forgiveness and how he was able to forgive his father. He described it as a three phases process. The first step is learning that forgiveness is a choice we can make and he instructed readers to write all our hurts down and then burn them and release the hurt. The second he encouraged readers to follow the scripture and to forgive from the heart and to pray. He was open about having to deal with his angry and hurt. It took him six years in being in phase two. The third is reconciliation between our us and the person who hurt us and try and live peacefully, if we can. He reminded readers we can’t control our family members and how they treat us but we can seek and try and find healing. He also shared personal stories from his marriage, parenting seven children, and his ministry. One common thing is any relationship there is always things we have to heal from in order to live a fulfilled and fruitful life. 





I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is struggling in their family relationships. The book is geared to just family relationships but the principles can also be applied to other relationships. I immensely enjoyed how open he was in sharing his own struggles and how he has had to heal from his own wounds in order to help himself and in turn also to reach out and help others through their own pains. I believe this book has the potential to help marriages and to help relationships between parents and children. We all go through things that over time and build up and cause strive and conflict in marriages and families. One of my favorite chapters was about repentance and how to ask forgiveness from a family member when we are the one who caused harm. If you’re seeking a book to heal your family, then read this book maybe even together! 



"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.” 





If you would like to purchase a copy of The Healing Family Relationships, check it out on Amazon.com: