The Reason
For My Hope

By Charles Stanley
Thomas Nelson, $19.99

ISBN 0840777655


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Stanley Proclaims Hope

Review by Roger Fanslow

How do you get out of bed in the morning? Are you one of those people who is instantly awake when the alarm goes off, jumps up, eager to get the day started? Or do you have to come awake slowly, moving in a fog until about nine o'clock? Different people do seem to have different body clocks, the early risers run down sooner at the end of the day while the late risers reach their peak as the sun goes down.

Apart from our biochemical makeup, there is no denying that despair and depression are rampant among many people today. And with good reasons: corporate mergers and downsizing bring job loss or change, crime and racism inflict tragedy in people's lives, social security is no longer secure, sexual promiscuity is wasting our young, and on and on. Why do you get out of bed in the morning? may be the better question.

A good place to find an answer is in reading Charles Stanley's The Reason for My Hope. Stanley confesses that he has been too caught up in "fighting for what is best," with earning the privilege of having been saved in measurable ways. When he conducted a search of sermons he had preached about God's unconditional love, he discovered only one out of the hundreds he had preached, and "when I read it, it wasn't worth the paper it was typed on."

He describes meeting with four men of unimpeachable character at a private lodge and telling them of his loss and his need. One of the men asked him one simple question: "What do you feel?" Stanley burst out crying and wept and wept, but he also felt the flood of God's divine love. In time he understood that "We need never have love-starved hearts again. . . . God's love is the most important thing you can know about God."

Out of this personal experience, Stanley proclaims God's love for each of us through loving Christ and letting ourselves be loved by Him -- no matter what. This way of life Stanley sums up in one word -- HOPE. And in the following chapters he reveals different facets of this great truth relating to God's plan for the good of all His creation, His personal blueprint for each believer's life, His desire to help you fulfill your potential, the needs He wants you to meet, and His never-ending promises for a "blessed future."

In his conclusion, Stanley lifts readers to a mighty swell of faith. "Yes, I have hope because God gives His love and grace at the dawning of each new day. I am His and He is mine. He is my Hope!"

Hope is clearly what all of us need as we get out of bed in the morning.

Thanks be to God, it's available for the asking.

Roger Fanslow is a freelance reviewer in Portland, OR.

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