With – Book Review

I’ve been looking forward to reading Skye Jethani’s “With” and was pleased to have the opportunity to review the book for the publishers. In the first section of the book the author shows how we generally relate to God. He categorizes this into four postures.

Life From God – Wanting to use God to control the outcome of our circumstances, so that we receive our hearts desires.

Life Over God – Using proven formulas and principles. Following the bible as a how to guide.

Life For God – Wanting your life to be significant and achieving great things for the Kingdom. Full time Christian service falls into this posture.

Life Under God – Controlling God through obedience, wanting to be pleasing, legalistic.

Skye admits that he has fallen into all four postures during his life, as I think most of us have, I know I can certainly see myself in them all. I must admit that I found the first section of this book quite difficult to read. Many times I wanted to throw the book down, due to my frustration, but I persevered!

The second section of the book was much easier to engage with. In the second section the author focuses on a fifth posture Life With God. During this section the author focuses on how we should live our lives With God. The chapters in this section are Life with God, Life with Faith, Life with Hope and Life with Love. In each of the chapters he gives some examples of how people have walked with God, including Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen and Martin Luther King. The author is primarily focusing on our engagement with God during these chapters. He encourages the reader to be with God, to treasure the time we have engaging with God and to regularly seek that solitude with Him. This will enable us to let go of our fears and to learn who we really are. Intimacy with God is what we have been created for.

In the appendix at the end of the book the author has given some detailed examples as to how people can commune with God more effectively. He suggestions include Lectio Divina, The Book of Common Prayer and The Examen. I recommend reading “With” I think people will get a lot out of it and will ultimately examine their relationship with God and will hopefully seek to become closer to Him.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the US Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”