Abundant Life in Jesus

One of the best daily devotional books you will ever read and deserves and needs to be on every bookshelf!

This is my favorite devotional of all time! Nancy Guthrie writes as if God is talking directly to you which is awe inspiring, but as she admits she wrote it with fear and trembling.

Ordered old version ... 15 or so in the past... sorry no longer smaller and yellow-green leather

I purchased this book for two friends, because I loved Guthrie's first book, " Abundant Life Day Book." I assumed this was a new devotional and pre-ordered it without reading the fine print: This is the SAME book as the first one, but it has a different title! Unfortunately, I had already given these two friends the first book last year, so I gave them the second book this year. Disappointed!

I was SO excited when I discovered another devotional book by Nancy Guthrie...until I saw the format. I have done Bible studies Nancy has written and have found them to be Bible-based and theologically sound. Even though I do not share her Reformed view of theology, I have gained much from reading anything she has written. However, after reading excerpts from this devotion, I cannot purchase it because it sounds too much like Sarah Young's Jesus Calling books...which are not Biblically sound and are written...with no disclaimer as if Sarah is receiving her messages from God. She may think she is hearing from God, but as John MacArthur says, "That's not Jesus Calling!" The office of Prophet is closed as is the canon of Scripture. To Nancy Guthrie's credit, she firmly states that only the words of Scripture are inspired...not her writing. Yet, because I so dislike Sarah Young's books and how they have deceived many, I cannot purchase a book that is written in the same format. Nancy, please go back to your own writing style that God has used mightily in the past.

Have you ever observed one of those families where the parents are able to command outward compliance from their kids, but they've clearly lost the children's hearts? Everyone says "Oh, what nice children you have. So well behaved!" and yet the child secretly doesn't trust the parent, and doesn't feel the parents love. So the kid performs, but they don't know if it really matters; they don't know if their parent really sees or cares. There are few things more painful to see. You know that the relationship should be so much more than it is, you know that this facade is cheating both parties. And you don't know how to slap them awake and convince them to change.A lot of times, we live that way towards God. Either we were raised religious, or we sincerely converted, but we learned how to behave. And so we do, enough to get by, enough that we've got "I'm Religious" tattooed on our forehead. We just don't really trust the heart of our God. We're not sure that he knows our heart.How do we get back where we need to be, alive in Christ, sure that we have God's heart?That's what Nancy Guthrie was ultimately concerned about as she penned these devotions. There are 365 of them, and they run the gamut from comforting to provoking. Nancy has written them as if God were speaking directly to the reader. Sometimes I find this style awkward, but once I got past this, I was able to appreciate the "meat" of these reflections.Nancy speaks of our God as the God who finds joy in doing good for his children. She says he has made himself knowable. She says he will share his happiness with us. She says he will redeem everything the enemy intends for evil. She brings her thoughts back to Christ, over and over, showing us that everything we want from God is in Christ, and everything we need for life on earth is in Christ.So that's a look at the contents of this book. Now for a word on the packaging. Tyndale has designed this book to look like a present without any need for wrapping paper. It's got one of those flexible leather-like covers stamped with flowers and birds and hearts. I can imagine this as a gift for a teen girl or for an elderly aunt.... any lady that you think would appreciate some feast-on-the-Word devotions.Thank you to the publisher for giving me a copy to review in exchange for my opinion.

Nancy Guthrie’s Abundant Life in Jesus: Devotions for Every Day of the Year is meant to encourage the reader into a deeper, more personal relationship with God.When I took this book out of the package, my first thought was, “it’s beautiful!” And it is, with a deep red leather-like cover, ribbon bookmark, and inviting pages. Each devotion takes up one page and includes a Bible verse, a short discussion, and a few lines of a prayer. The discussion section is written by Guthrie from God’s perspective (in the same style of Jesus Calling); she makes sure to express to the reader, “writing as if it is God who is speaking is only a device employed for the purpose of helping you hear him speak his blessing personally to you,” and notes that only the Bible verse itself is authoritative. This is an important concept to grasp.This devotional should be used as a starting point for Bible study and prayer, as the scripture content is limited to an isolated verse. Each day could be used as a jumping-off point to explore the verse in context or as a type of “warm-up” for digging into whatever scripture you are studying at the time. (Anyone else have a hard time waking up and jumping into Bible study?)