Make Time for Joy
Summary
Make Time for Joy by Linda Evans Shepherd is a book of prayers designed to help the audience pray through their anxieties and embrace the joy that God has for them. This book covers a variety of themes related to anxiety, repentance, and peace with repentance, humility, and honesty with God all central. With an emphasis on seeking after God’s joy and peace in your life, each beautifully-written prayer is backed up by Scripture from a variety of translations. Each prayer encourages turning from anxiety and worry, spending a moment with God to reset and seek His joy for us.
Assessment
Make Time for Joy has prayers on a variety of topics, although it leans toward helping those who are anxious pray through their anxieties and embrace the joy and blessings that God has planned for them. Each prayer is backed up with Scriptural references, and is written in an approachable way. The writing style is somewhat artistic and flowery to fit the theme of joy and peace, but easy to understand for all English mastery levels.
Light-o-Meter
Writing Style: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Organization/Formatting: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Fulfillment of Purpose: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Theological Message: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Overall: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Talk
Overall, this is a pretty great book if you are looking for something uplifting and supportive! The prayers have a richness to them that keeps Make Time for Joy from being a run-of-the-mill “pray your worries away in 8 easy steps!” kind of book. It is designed with the structure of not just encouragement to let go of one’s anxieties, but also with edification and repentance in mind. The last two elements are often missing in this kind of book, so it is exceptionally encouraging to see in modern Christian nonfiction!
My one concern is not necessarily a dealbreaker — and, actually, has nothing to do with the prayers themselves, which are lovely! — but this book includes quoted Scripture from over 14 different translations of the Bible. Now, I’m not someone who feels that only one translation is superior over the others. Personally, I flip between ESV (what my church uses) and NKJV (what I grew up with) depending on the situation and context. Most translations have their strengths and their weaknesses and whichever you feel inclined or convicted to choose within the more reliable versions is typically no problem.
However, among the 14 translations are a few that are known to be unreliable or paraphrase beyond the original meaning of the verse, such as The Voice and The Passion translations. These translations did not show up often, I personally only saw one or two instances of each, which is not enough to really hurt my opinion of this book, but it is something I want to make possible readers aware of.
Setting that more technical concern aside, however, Linda Evans Shepherd’s writing style is quite beautiful and the prayers do not come across as either some kind of twist on prosperity gospel or in the vein of “self-help Christianity”. More often than not they include a strong element of humility and worship, seeking after the comforting, spiritual peace and joy that God has promised to His children, rather than demanding it. If you are someone who is looking for this kind of comfort or looking to develop a new prayer habit, then this would be an excellent resource!
Where to Enjoy
Barnes & Noble: Make Time for Joy: Scripture-Powered Prayers to Brighten Your Day by Linda Evans Shepherd, Hardcover
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