Book Review: The Love Revolution

The Love Revolution by Joyce Meyer Hardback: 272 pages Publisher: FaithWords First Released: 2009 Author/Book Website Author on Twitter Book on Twitter

Source: Review copy from publisher

Book Description (from publisher website):
Joyce Meyer is not satisfied with the status quo. She believes that we each need to become a revolutionary and practice love every day. And if Joyce has her way, the revolution will spread - person by person, house by house, town by town, until the old culture of selfishness and greed gives way to a new culture of concern for others.

The book is a revolutionaries' manual, a hands-on primer for bringing the Golden Rule to life in the twenty-first century. Meyer starts out by giving some stunning statistics. Right now...210,000 children will die this week because of poverty; 640 million children do not have adequate shelter; every day, 3,000 children are abducted into the sex-trafficking industry; every day, 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes. She goes on to say that although crisis is global, the solution is local. We can't solve the world's problems, but that isn't a reason to remain idle.

LOVE REVOLUTION focuses on personal behavior on the local scale. It's not just a call to action; it is a call to being: being the person who goes out of your way to encourage someone who's out of hope; being the one who smiles at a stranger; being the one who is willing to do something for nothing. The paradox: when we do something for nothing, what we often get is something far greater.


Review:
The Love Revolution is an excellent Scripture-based, God-focused book. If you questioned her past theology, I urge you to give this book a chance. If you liked her past books, definitely get this one as well!

I'd summarize this book's message as being 'the fulfillment of our faith in Christ is following his example (and showing our appreciation for the mercy he has shown us) by showing that love and mercy to others.' She teaches a Biblical, balanced view of how to do life.

The book is written in a conversational, easy-to-understand style. She gives practical suggestions of things we can do (both big and small), cheers her readers on, and explains why showing love to others in real, tangible ways is important. I liked that she stressed doing small, everyday acts of love for those around us as well as the big, obvious things like helping stop sex trafficking and such. Little things might not seem important, but I've seen how they can make a huge impact.

She repeats several points throughout the book, but they are important points that bear repeating. She often uses the outreach ministries done by her organization as examples of possible ways to love others, but she also gives examples from other people's ministries, suggests doing things her organization doesn't do, and tells how her personal experiences in showing love (which often resulted in a new outreach) has impacted her life.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this book, especially to those who haven't really thought about helping others as a way to grow closer to God or who want ideas on more ways they can show Christ's love to others.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter Six
At the age of thirty-two, I found myself very frustrated because my Christianity didn't seem to be helping me in my practical, everyday life. I believed I would go to heaven when I died, but I was desperate for some help to get through each day on earth with peace and joy. My soul was filled with pain from the abuse of my childhood and I manifested that pain daily in my attitudes and inability to maintain good relationships.

God's word tells us that if we seek Him diligently we will find Him (see Prov. 8:17). I began seeking God on my own for whatever I was missing, and I had an encounter with Him that brought me much closer to Him. He suddenly seemed very present in my daily life and I began to study diligently in order to know Him better. It seemed that everywhere I turned, I heard about faith. I learned that I could apply my faith in many circumstances, which would open a door for God to get involved and help me.

I believed with all my heart that the principles I was learning were correct, but I still experienced great frustration because I couldn't seem to get them to work for me, at least not to the degree to which I desperately needed them to work. At that time, God was using me in ministry, and my ministry to others was actually quite large. I had definitely made tremendous progress, but still felt deep within my heart that something was missing, so once again I began to seek God in a serious way. Through my searching and deeper study I learned that I was missing the main lesson Jesus came to teach us; to love God, love ourselves, and love others (see Matt. 22:36-39). I had learned a lot about faith as I walked with God, but I had not learned about the power of love.

During the several years of my journey of learning about this marvelous subject, I realized that faith only works through love. According to Galatians 5:6, faith is actually "activated and energized and expressed" through love.

The Holy Spirit led me to study Psalm 37:3: "Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good." I was startled to realize that I had only half of what I needed to know to connect properly with God. I wanted good things to happen to me, but I was not overly concerned about being good to others, particularly when I was hurting or going through a time of personal trial.