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:
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