Fervent – A Book
Review
Broken.
Disheveled. Discouraged. Barely clinging to hope. Those are the words that encapsulate where I
found myself as I picked up Priscilla Shirer’s book, Fervent. I felt broken by
the looming threat of marital dissolution.
Earlier in 2015, my husband and I separated and I found myself
contemplating divorce as the year neared its cyclic close. I looked in the mirror and I was emotionally
and spiritually disheveled from the harsh beating inflicted by gusty winds of
uncertainty and icy storms of confusion.
Discouragement over the future lurked along my horizon and I was barely
clinging to hope. I sat alone in my small, one bedroom apartment and, through
tears, opened the pages of one of the most life changing books I’ve read. Ever.
Immediately, I was incited against the dark forces that had
held me captive for the last year.
Things about myself that I had forgotten began to resurface in my
memories. New words emerged. Called. Equipped.
Armed. Empowered. Only moments into
the pages, a shift began to occur in my thinking and suddenly, I felt a surge
of strength. Of passion. Of purpose.
Of anger. How dare the enemy aim to rob me of not only
my identity in Christ, but also all of those things for which Christ died on my
behalf. To hell with you, devil, became the new message ringing in my ears
as I began to take captive every defeating and disheartening thought that had
occupied my mind prior to opening the Spirit saturated pages of Shirer’s book. As the words took root in my heart, I began
to see that this was no ordinary volume.
It wasn’t written for the sweet child who prays innocently for a piece
of candy after dinner. Neither was it
addressed to the prideful Pharisee type who offers up prayers of gratitude that
he’s not like others. It wasn’t even
written to the one who already has a strong and faithful prayer life. No, it was written to the worn out, desperate
woman who’s on the edge of the seat of despair.
To the one who is about to give up.
To her who is considering quitting. It was written to the defeated, the hopeless,
and discouraged. It was written to me. So if
that’s also you…if you’ve lost your fight, forgotten your position of victory,
or feel your candle is about to burn out, allow me to recommend Priscilla
Shirer’s Fervent. Reading it will
leave you changed. Hungry for victory.
Angry over the enemy’s lies. Fervent in prayer.
