Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Review: What Women Fear

What Women Fear
By Angie Smith
B & H Books September 2011


As wives, as mothers, as women, we tend to fear a lot of things. We worry that our husband might lose his job, our mother could have another stroke, or that our precious child might get hit by a car while out riding their bike. Angie Smith’s book What Women Fear looks at her own deep-seeded fears in light of the Bible and a relationship with a heavenly Father.

Each fear is connected to someone from the Bible. Fear of the what if correlates with Hagar, who wondered if she could have done something different to keep her son safe with his father instead of dying out in the desert. She is so consumed with fear that she doesn’t even see the well that God has provided to save him. Job has fears of rejection, abandonment and betrayal when his wife and friends tell him that God has left him and he should curse his maker. Jonah fears what God has planned for his life and that it will not match his own plans.

The most striking chapter concerns Peter walking on the waves towards Jesus. Smith writes about doubt, our fear that God isn’t who he says he is or doesn’t have the power to fulfill his promises. “I don’t think it’s possible to live this life without room for doubt. And even more shockingly, I don’t think God holds it against us. After all, if He wanted us to know we could walk on water, I think He would have designed us to do it.”

This book is obviously not going to pack as much of an emotional punch as Smith’s previous book, I Will Carry You. That being said, this would be a great book for a women’s bible study. Actually, it’s a great book for anyone, although it is marketed towards women. Many of the biblical examples are men and I have to imagine that men have fears too…they just deal with them differently.

Ms. Smith is a lovely writer. You can tell with each sentence that she really wants to help her readers find faith in spite of their fear, instead of being paralyzed by it. She believes that we can all find balance on this tightrope of life, that “the more we tap into a life balanced by Christ, grounded in knowing Him and His Word, the less we have to worry about falling off. It’s still scary up here, no question, but if we can get a firm grip on that which steadies us, it will look different.”

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