"A Year With God" Giveaway

Thomas Nelson never ceases to inspire me with the books they send to me to review. A few weeks ago, they sent over a new devotional book called A Year With God by R. P. Nettelhorst. It’s been a while since I have read a devotional book. I usually choose a Bible study type book, or better yet, reading straight from the Bible. But I wanted to do the review and give you guys a chance to win a copy, so I gave it a shot.

There are several things that struck me as interesting about this book. First of all, the subtitle is “Make His Thoughts Your Thoughts”. Amen, and yes to that! How many of us go through our prayer time asking God to fix things on our list of broken items – broken homes, broken children, broken marriages, broken bodies, broken finances, broken churches, broken nations. Does He want us to ask about these things? Absolutely. In fact, He tells us to ask and applauds us for knowing that He is the One who cares enough to do it. But how often do we approach the God of the Universe and let Him know how we want things done instead of truly making His thoughts our own. True humility demands that WE conform to HIM instead of the other way around. It’s HIS plan that is in place and we are ancillary. How quickly we forget that and approach Him as if He is working for us. Shame on us, and may we have the grace and humility to change this wretched way of thinking.

The other interesting thing I noticed about A Year With God  is that every daily devotional comes from a passage of scripture in the Old Testament. That might not seem noteworthy to you at first glance, but if you really stop to look through devotional books tat you own, I bet you will find that most of the scripture passages used are from the New Testament. And not without reason. After all, Jesus is the central character in the New Testament, and it is right and fitting that so much attention be given to Him. But God is also God in the Old Testament. The coming of Christ in the New Testament, while fulfilling the Old Testament, does not negate the writings and wisdom of the Old Testament. This book, to me, was a refreshing look at the Old Testament, which is just as important and just as much God’s Holy Word as the New Testament.

So there you have it. If you would like to have a brand-spanking-new copy of this book for yourself, just leave a comment. One blessed winner will be chosen at random. I’ll announce the winner on Monday.