Book Review | My Name is Hope

I’ve recently been on a kick with John Mark Comer books…
Garden City
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
God Has a Name

When I find an author I enjoy, I try to read everything they’ve written. My Name is Hope is a great resource for anyone that is dealing with anxiety and/or depression or loves and serves folks who are walking through those valleys. That means it’s a great resource for anyone! This book was very encouraging and pointed to Scripture in so many ways. Comer shares more of his own story in putting this book together. His openness invites the reader to let their guard down and really allow the Spirit to move and work in the difficult places of their heart and mind.

I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…

  • God is not shocked by your emotions. No matter how messed up your soul may be, God is right there with you, listening. Location: 267
  • According to King Solomon, when there’s anxiety in your mind—in your thoughts, in your imaginations, deep in your well—the result is depression in your emotions and feelings. Location: 486
  • The point is this: How we think influences how we feel. Location: 487
  • Bitterness is like an infectious weed. It grows up in the hearts and minds of people who have been hurt and wronged. At first we don’t see it. Yet, like a weed, it starts to cause trouble. It chokes out life, love, joy, peace, and health just like a weed strangles flowers in the garden. Location: 656
  • God built us to walk in peace, not anxiety, which means he calls us to trust, not worry. Location: 730
  • Anxiety is temporary atheism. Location: 731
  • Anxiety is when you stop trusting God, stop believing there is a God who is real, aware, loving, involved, and able to do anything in your life. When you worry, you suspend faith—you stop believing in what is true. Location: 731
  • Humans need a mission. Vision. Goals. Plans. Something on the horizon for which we can work, sweat, and pray. Location: 785
  • The human soul was not designed to bear the crushing load of guilt. Unconfessed, habitual sin suffocates the soul’s life and sucks our energy right out. God built us to live in transparency and vulnerability, not in hiding. One-time sins are bad enough. Blunders, mistakes, and failures result in all kinds of pain. But ongoing hidden sin is a thousand times worse. It numbs us. Slowly, but surely, your body adapts to the pain. It creates calluses around the soul. You stop feeling God—feeling the Spirit’s conviction. You stop feeling alive. Location: 801 
  • The habitual, regular, rhythmic practice of confession is key to the life of the soul. Confession starts with God. You open up in prayer. You are honest. You admit you have a problem. You ask for forgiveness. You repent, turn away, ask for help, and move on. Location: 815
  • The cross builds a coffin and buries your sin six feet under the ground. Location: 1,012
  • Anxiety is mental. Depression is emotional. And they are undeniably linked. How you think influences how you feel. Location: 1,355
  • Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” All creation speaks of the glory, presence, nature, and nearness of God. Wake up and pay attention. It’s good for the body, and for the soul. Location: 1,728
  • God built us to face life together as a family. It is in the moments of transparency and openness and community that we find healing and freedom. Location: 1,979
  • To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray in alignment with his heart, to pray in harmony with his desires and hopes and plans, to make requests you know are in line with God’s will. Location: 2,183
  • David prays, “I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait, I say, on the Lord…”[9] Location: 2,402

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