More About 30 Days to Growing In Your Faith

The blog is coming to you a day early because tomorrow is the release date for my new book, 30 Days To Growing In Your Faith. I wanted to remind you that if you are still "planning" to get the book, you might want to pre-order it today to get the pre-order bonuses. Last week I told you why I wrote this book on spiritual growth. This week I want to tell you why I began a book on "spiritual growth" by talking about "happiness". It is okay to want to be happy. The book begins with “pursuing happiness” as the starting point for growing spiritually. Not a typical place to start for a spiritual growth book. A Christian might instinctively feel self-conscious about wanting to be happy. We might initially think we ought to have a more noble purpose in life. Yet, God has created us with a deep drive for happiness, and he uses that drive to draw us to Himself. Only He can satisfy us deeply in the long run. When we accept that, we can feel free to fan the flame of happiness, but always going to God to be satisfied. But then, if we accept the legitimacy of happiness, our next challenge is to abandon ourselves to an eternal perspective. Because if we don't view reality the same way God does, we will never be happy. Eventually, when the blows of life get serious enough, or when the frustrations of life last long enough, we risk getting exasperated with God for His incessant refusal to bless our perfectly good desires and fulfill our perfectly reasonable plans. But God is relentless. He loves us too much to allow us to be deeply happy with anything other then Himself. C.S. Lewis said in a perceptive analogy, "It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." That is easy enough to accept in principle, but living it out gets tricky, because “trials” are one of God’s central methods for getting us to let go of mud pies and lay hold of a holiday at the sea. It is counter-intuitive. It’s hard to do. It’s no more strange than the fact that in athletics, we have to push our body to what feels like the breaking point if we are going to truly excel. Why should we be terribly surprised that the same thing is true spiritually? Again, Lewis said, “We must stop regarding unpleasant or unexpected things as interruptions of real life. The truth is that interruptions are real life. Life is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties.” Trials are a key to our ultimate happiness And this is not hidden in Scripture. It’s lying there in plain sight in James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.” So… there it is. Not hard to understand. We just don’t like it. We’d rather that spiritual growth could be accelerated by watching sunsets while eating chocolate while playing with puppies. But such is not the case. We can be happy. Happier than the world can ever make us. But only God’s way. When we embrace that, we are ready to rise to the heights that God is offering us.

• Only then will we be willing to abandon our own will in favor of God’s.
• Only then will we have the perseverance to absorb the blows that life will inevitably give us and keep on pursuing God’s higher will.
• Only then will we be able to avoid getting distracted, discouraged, and even defeated by God’s refusal to bless our will.

  God is good. Our challenge is to be insightful enough, courageous enough, hungry enough, to trust Him and follow Him to the end. Our task is to believe Him when He says that – though it is not an easy road - we can lay down mud pies and take up a holiday at the sea. The book begins with “happiness,” then covers a wealth of other vital subjects A motivated Christian - really, any Christian - can’t afford not to know what’s in this book. Otherwise, there will be holes in your knowledge, holes in your understanding, and holes in your spiritual development. There might not be much new to you in this book. It is standard evangelical Bible teaching. There are other whole books written on each of the chapter subjects in this volume. But, 30 Days To Growing In Your Faith boils each subject down to an irreducible minimum (because it’s better to get all of a little than none of a lot), and presents it in a way that enables the brain to grasp it quicker, easier than any other way. In one of the endorsements of the book, David Reeves, President of UnfoldingWord, says: "[Max’s] ability to digest large volumes of information, laced with complex, interconnected ideas and then boil it all down into tight, simple summaries is very unique. If you’ve read his best-selling classic "30 Days To Understanding The Bible", you’ll understand what I mean. Now he has blessed us with that wonderful gift once again in "30 Days to Growing in Your Faith” which I’m certain will become a must-have companion volume." Conclusion Take a look at some of the subjects covered in the book:

• The Importance of Gratitude
• The Mystery of Prayer
• The Challenge of Living Like Who We Have Become
• The Role of Pain and Suffering
• The Challenge of Discerning God's Will
• The Necessity of Mental Renewal
• The Importance of Scripture
• Spiritual Disciplines
• The Role of Trials
• The Power of Humility

  Ask yourself: "Do I have a clear understanding of the basics of what the Bible teaches in each of these subjects?" "Could I explain them to someone else?" If you want to be able to confidently answer "Yes" to those two questions - for your own spiritual growth or to help some one else - get the book! Fill in any gaps that might exist in your own biblical knowledge base and also have an invaluable resource in helping others lay a complete Bible-knowledge foundation to be able to go on to a lifetime of further learning. As I mentioned at the top of this post, the book will be released tomorrow, but if you order the book today, you will also get the pre-order bonuses, which will only be available through today:

• Phone and desktop wallpapers
• Daily reminder digital prints
• 6-page e-booklet on prayer that I wrote

  I think you'll find the e-booklet on prayer extremely helpful. In fact, I have been rereading it each day in my own personal daily devotions to remind myself of and absorb more and more of the valuable truth in it. The story the booklet ends with is a powerful example of what God really wants from us regarding our prayer life. I think you’ll find it valuable. I know I do. So, if you haven't ordered your copy of 30 Days To Growing In Your Faith yet, don't miss out on the pre-order bonuses only available through today - pre-order 30 Days To Growing In Your Faith here. It will lay a complete Bible-knowledge foundation for your spiritual life that will enable you to go on to a lifetime of further learning. Next week, we'll return to our the final section in our "Renew Your Mind ~ Transform Your Life" series. See you then!

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