In the Introduction the difficulty of change is realistically presented. Chapter 1 ties powerfully change to our being made in the image of God. I enjoyed the questions raised in chapter 2 about why would we like to change. You will see why that’s really important.

When you get to chapter 3, I find the presentation to be a bit muddled. On the good side, there is a wonderful explanation of our utter dependence on Christ, or you might say, on the power of the Gospel. Clearly, there is no change without the grace of our Lord. On the bad side, though, he completely misunderstands the spiritual disciplines as if they of necessity must be legalistic. He explains, or at least it appears to me he does, that if we use spiritual disciples we will without fail tell ourselves that we have affected the change and glory in it. Mr. Chester is a well respected theologian ( I too would rank him as such), but I hardly think that he would really believe that if he thought more deeply about it. Prayer, for example, is one of the spiritual disciples. Is all prayer legalistic? Even prayer for major change? I know he would reject that idea. What if I am using the spiritual disciples merely to access the grace of my Lord? Isn’t the goal of such disciplines to make Christ more real in my life, and therefore make me depend more on Him and less on me? To be sure, I need the same grace to go on in the Christian life that I did to become a Christian. No thinking person would dispute that point. Strangely enough, however, it’s surprising just how much similarity his approach has to the “Let go and let God” approach that those of Mr. Chester’s stripe would find so abhorrent. Perhaps he tells us the danger of one ditch (if I did allow myself to view the spiritual disciplines I’m employing legalistically) at the expense of fully describing the road itself.

On page 53, for example, he says “We also have a new motivation to battle against sin”. That’s for sure. Why couldn’t we employ the spiritual disciplines in that battle as a funnel for grace? In terms of this book review, he writes passionately about his approach and says many wonderful things about the beauty of the Gospel. Perhaps I’m a bit (overly?) passionate myself as a former pastor who now leads a Christian Men’s recovery program. You as the reader can weigh this issue yourself and raise or lower your rating of this book accordingly.

Though chapter 3 was like hitting a pothole for me, the book grew in helpfulness from there. By the time he got to chapter 6 I found his doctrinal thoughts really resonating with this idea of change. His discussion of repentance and mortification has real potential in being distinct help. Then chapter 7 evens tops it! What stops you from changing—a profound question.

Chapter 8 tackles support and he champions the local church. That is ideal, but I’ve seen so many cases that a church wasn’t particularly good at taking this role. You can say such churches are then failing, and perhaps that’s true, but it’s still a reality for some individuals. The thoughts on having others to speak into your life, however, is spot on.

The final chapter reminds me that he has worked practically every major doctrine into this work. Sanctification is part of the explanation of change for sure.

One thing that deserves praise in Mr. Chester is his penchant to admit his own struggles. Those admissions also seemed genuine and avoided glorifying the sin itself. That attitude is beneficial to helping others contemplate change.

This is a helpful book. Hopefully I wasn’t too picky in my criticism above, but I’d be the least able of anyone to answer if I was. I pray this volume helps many work through change.

I received this book free from the publisher. 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 Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255