Fear Less ~ Book Review

I have two words we should all be doing more of, Fearing Less or in this case of my most recent book I have read and am reviewing for Thomas Nelson Publishers is Fearless by Max Lucado.

It is simply an amazing book that you can’t put it down once you begin reading it. Face it everyone is afraid of something, losing a home, a job, a child, your faith, your life, the end of the world, that we are worthless, life is too hard, violence, loss of income, or what if God just isn’t real! Any of those cross your mind lately or do you know of someone that is has?

This is a perfect book because each of those fears is taken on from a Biblical perspective one at a time, in the Max Lucado’s form of writing that we all come to love. He keeps it in a real perspective using stories of what he himself has encountered to draw us further into this book.

Fear has gotten so much publicity lately they have even named a book and a game after our silly fears called, “Worst Case Scenario”! I mean how many of us will take one little thing and keep adding more and more things to it that by the time we reach the end, we are on our death beds just waiting to die.

I love Max’s explanation on what happens when we fear things.

“These real fears, born out of legitimate concerns. Yet left unchecked, they metastasize into obsessions. The step between prudent and paranoia is short and steep. Prudence wears a seat belt. Paranoia avoids cars. Prudence washes with soap. Paranoia avoids human contact. Prudence saves for old age. Paranoia hoards even trash. Prudence prepares and plans. Paranoia panics. Prudence calculates the risk and takes the plunge. Paranoia never enters the water.” – Max Lucado, Fearless, pg. 80.

It just shows you have far our fears can control our very lives if we let it. In today’s economy, we have some of the greatest fears you can imagine. Losing a job, which leads to no income, which leads to not paying bills, which leads to foreclosure on your home, which leads to living on the street, which leads to no food or shelter, which leads to death. So we have to worry about losing our job because we have no hope right?

Wrong, here is my favorite part of the book. “God owns everything and gives us all things to enjoy. He is a good shepherd to us, his little flock. Trust HIM, not stuff. Move from the fear of scarcity to the comfort of provision. Less hoarding, more sharing. “Do good…be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share.” And most of all, replace fear of the coming winter with faith in the living God. After all, it’s just Monopoly money. It all goes back in the box when the game is over.” – Max Lucado, Fearless pg. 112.