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Review: Grace is Greater: God’s Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain and Rewrite Your Story by Kyle Idleman



Review: Grace is Greater: God’s Plan to Overcome Your Past, Redeem Your Pain and Rewrite Your Story
Kyle Idleman
Baker Books
2017

What’s not to like about this book?  Not much in my opinion.  Idleman has a way of talking about grace that hits home in very practical ways.  Ways that we all live every day.  He tackles the hard stuff and tempers it with the grace of God.  A peak at the table of contents says as much.  Grace is Greater…Than Your Mistakes,  …Than  Your Hurts…Than Your Circumstance.  Within those
 
I found his discussions that touched on forgiveness some of the best I’ve read anywhere.  But, I thought this book was about grace. It is.  Grace and forgiveness are closely linked.  We know that, most of us anyway.  Just like we know that grace is greater.  Grace is something that just reading about it isn’t going to be enough. Idleman covers that ground, too, with some very good examples. 
 
Toward the end of the book I found a small paragraph or two that were particularly helpful to me.  He’s been discussing pain and how many people respond with “Everything happens for a reason”.  Idleman says, “Here’s how I’ve tried to encourage people to reframe that question.  Instead of asking ‘What’s the reason?’ we should ask ‘What is the purpose?’  Because I don’t know if there is always a reason, but I know God in his grace always has a purpose.”  Then he continues. “What’s the difference between ‘reason’ and ‘purpose’?  Reason looks for a because, but purpose focuses on the for.  Reason wants a logical explanation that will make sense out of something that has happened.  Purpose offers us a hope that whatever has happened God can work for good.” (181) He follows up on this distinction from Scripture passage from John 9 and Luke 13.  

Yes, I recommend this book to you.   In my opinion this is probably the best book on grace that I have read.  

I received this book from the publisher in return for a review.

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