Joel Osteen: Your Best Life Now
A guest review from Pastor Murray Hohns.
Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential (Warner Faith, 2004), 310 pages, ISBN 9780446532754.
I briefly knew Joel Osteen’s father thirty years ago when the FGBMFI was at its peak. Those were exciting days that featured a mighty revival, one that was sure to affect our country for several generations and Your Best Life Now is proof of that the second wave of the Pentecostal movement has touched several generations and will continue to do so.
I heard Hank Hanegraff criticize Pastor Joel the other day, and that might be a good sign that something worthwhile, something special, is to be found in the ministry that merited Hank’s attention. Joel who, unlike Hank H., pastors our country’s largest church has written a lovely simple life changing book which if followed will transform the typical believer into a mighty person of God. The book presents seven steps to living your best life now, and I practice them every day all day long. They work.
Osteen teaches that we are favored by God; that we are victors, not victims; that our first words every day should celebrate who we are in Christ, and that such confession will pave the way for God’s grace to invade every facet of your being so that you grow in the wonders of a loving heavenly Father.
We learn to love our neighbor, to stop criticizing each other, to be patient and understanding, willing to surrender your opinions to those of Him to whom we owe all. We learn that God has not forgotten your name; that no weapon formed against us can prosper, that we are to expect the supernatural, to expect blessing in the city, in the country, when we go out and when we come in.
Osteen has given us a lovely book of principles which if followed will turn your mourning into dancing and fill you with expectancy and joy. You will learn that God has destined you to good things, and that they are around the corner; that we are to look up and cheerfully wait out the days while God is working on our behalves, confident that He who is in us is far greater than the one who is in the world.
My wife and I watch Pastor Joel’s television presentation each week. It is part and parcel of our Sunday evening routine. We have learned to do things that we already knew but did not do. This lovely encouraging book belongs on your shelf but more importantly its words deserve to be buried and yet alive in your heart so that you do not miss anything that the Father has intended for you.
Reviewed by H. Murray Hohns
Category: Living the Faith