This is a compensated post in exchange for a book review. Thanks to FrontGate Media for sending Invincible Joy. |
Do you ever think back to those dreams you had as a child? I'm not talking about the dreams that wake you up in the middle of the night. I'm talking about those dreams of the "could be's" of the future. Some of our dreams may have consisted of career goals, family goals, travel aspirations, financial implications, or even habitation and living situations. Along the way, the realities of becoming an adult, the stressors of daily life, and the mundane business might have squashed those dreams for some of us, or at least, diminished some of the joy we once held.
Oliver Asher invites us on a journey to explore our dreams, God's purpose for us, and to find explicable joy in his book Invincible Joy: Chasing God's Dreams for Your Life. This newly published book invites us into a world of joy and purpose. Learning about Oliver Asher's personal story, learning how God works in the middle of hardship, and learning how to seek out God's purpose to find joy are the key points that this book highlights for us.
Asher begins by inviting us on his own personal journey of sorrow. He reminds us that sometimes life is life: full of circumstances and events that we can't control. These events can cut our dreams short, kill them immediately, or change the trajectory so that the dreams we started out with no longer are the same. Yet, this isn't the end of the story.
Invincible means too powerful to be defeated or to overcome. God's story is exactly that: Invincible. God's story offers joy that can't be overcome or defeated. In fact, God's dream for us is so big that it can't be shaken. No matter the season of life, we can experience joy that can't be defeated, because we are listening and following God.
We too, are invited on a journey with God. We get the wonderful chance to honor God, ask God what's next, and continue to serve. Asher reminds us, that while it's difficult to hold onto joy during those moments of angst, it's still possible to find joy while figuring out what's next for us and our dreams.
I thought through all of my own dreams and how they have morphed and shaped based on my life's decisions, circumstances, and experiences. Yes, there has been disappointment. Yes, there have been road curves and pivots, and sometimes even dead ends. But the one thing that remains clear, when my dreams died, it was because God was inviting me into something new, something even bigger and better than my original dream.
Asher's interesting personal story intertwined with God's story reminds us that we are not alone, that we are called into community together to dream big, and that we are made with a purpose. We are made to find true joy in Christ Jesus, Maybe you will discover just how much your dreams have changed and grown because of God's amazing love.
One of the things I love about this book is how it focuses on the positive rather than the negative. The negative is not what God wants us to live into. In fact, the negative slowly eats at our dreams, chips away our joy, until we find ourselves in a pit of despair that we can't escape. Asher fully admits that we will experience the bad stuff- it's a part of the world we live in.
Health and emotional well-being, physical circumstances, and daily life can't always be controlled and played out in ways that we want. We will face things, but God also places people in our lives to help us overcome. I think that this is a part of life that we forget: we are NOT meant to live it alone.
Making decisions is scary. Leaping into the unknown and following dreams is scary. Asher reminds us that when we seize those moments and make the leap forward, the joy we find within is incredibly. In fact, it becomes so much and so bright that we can't wait to share it with others.
This holiday season, if you are struggling with a sense of purpose and want to div into a great book that will have you thinking about your many blessings, look no further than Invincible Joy. It's been a hard season for many of us, so it's time to be reminded that life is full of joy, that suffering does not win, and that nothing can defeat the love of God found in Christ Jesus.
Want it? Get it!
Purchase Oliver L. Asher's Invincible Joy. Asher is the President of Advancing Native Missions. He is passionate about sharing the love of Jesus, encouraging others, and helping people find their joy.
Follow Oliver Asher on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
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