Sacred Endurance by Trillia Newbell {Book Review}

“God is an ever-present help.” This means God isn’t sort-of present, halfway present, distracted, or distant. He is always present. God is with us in our lostness and trouble.”
Trillia Newbell in Sacred Endurance (p88)

Sacred Endurance: Finding Grace and Strength for a Lasting Faith by Trillia Newbell

In Sacred Endurance, Trillia Newbell gives us clear direction, grace, and encouragement to get through some of the places in our faith where we might get plain tired of the struggle. Newbell’s words are bracing and effective. Each chapter points us towards Jesus and grace while still encouraging us to meet our challenges head-on and with full-confidence in God.

I especially appreciated the chapter called ‘Right Motivations’ about being careful not to get stuck in legalism and the chapter called ‘Enduring Society and the World’ that covered the unique challenges of navigating social media, racial division, and what to do in our imperfect world. Other chapter topics covered the traps of prosperity gospel, individualism, limitations, spiritual disciplines, waiting, the important role of our mind, and more. This book is helpful, nuanced, encouraging, challenging, and very relevant.

A few more quotes:

“We aren’t going to get things right every time, every day, and every moment of every day. We are going to struggle. Jesus was the perfect one, and we are not, so we look to him.” p25
“Sometimes the thing we need to throw off that hinders us isn’t sin but condemnation.” p25
“We want to run, but we want to adjust our motives and not run as those trying to earn favor before God.” p26
“When we open our Bibles to hear his voice, we can do it not to procure his acceptance but to walk in fellowship with him.” p33
“God isn’t wringing his hands, and he has not left us. Because we know that God is working and active in all situations, we can submit our anxious thoughts to him.” p60
“We won’t see this anxiety-ridden division become whole until Jesus returns. All the chaos and confusion will come to a screeching halt. But are we simply resigned to anxious waiting until that day? What if instead we took our anxiety and turned it into faithful prayer? What if we took our anxiety related to racial division and turned it into faithful preaching, writing, or some other creative form? What if we took our anxiety and turned it into faithful action related to division?” p82