I believe that setting aside time every day for worship and reflection is an essential for a Christian. In my own life I have found this necessary to prevent drift and neglect, occurrences that are only too ready to take place in my busy life. Drift and neglect lead to a decay of the foundation of my relationship with Jesus. One of the ways that I like to approach worship and reflection is through reading both devotionals and expository works. One of my favorite authors in this regard is Charles Swindoll. My most recent read from his vast collection of books is entitled
Strengthening Your Grip. The purpose of this book was to help provide encouragement toward living a more Godly life. Sometimes we struggle because we have lost our initial zeal for God under the strain of living a hurried and harried life, with all of its demands and pulls for our attention. Sometimes we come to accept the good when the better is waiting for us with just a slight course change.
In
Strengthening Your Grip Swindoll considers a number of key areas of living where we could use some encouragement and some advice. These include:
- Priorities - do we have the demands of our life set in proper perspective?
- Purity - how can we keep our focus on the things of God and not the lusts of the flesh?
- Money - how can we stay in control of our finances?
- Integrity - how do we make our yes mean yes and our no mean no?
- Discipleship - why discipleship is so important - both giving and receiving?
- Aging - how to remain strong through the seasons of life?
- Prayer - how should we approach prayer with our God?
- Leisure - why is our time of rest so critical to our health?
- Missions - what is missions all about and how can we contribute and be obedient?
- Family - what does the Bible tell us about having a healthy family?
Each chapter is based on Scripture and brought to life with anecdotes and observations, and each chapter can serve as a personal daily devotional or can be used as part of a weekly small group reading assignment. However, as always, Swindoll's approach is gentle, wise, non-nonsense, practical, and Godly.
