Book review Enemies of the Heart by Andy Stanley

This book will preach!  Oh wait, that's right, it was based on a sermon series that Andy did at North Point.  When I say it'll preach, I mean it did!  It preached to me as I read it.  In typical Stanley fashion he brings his point home with a good mix of humor and story.  The point is the state of our hearts!

The book is broken into four parts.  Part one deals with the reality of the emotions that we all deal with and the need to confront just where these feelings and our responses to those emotions come from.  The truth is they come from within us.  That's something we don't like to admit!  We'd rather blame someone else for our "issues".  The problem is our heart.  The Bible describes it as the "well spring of life" and Jesus reminds us that from the "overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."  The problem therefore is a heart that is out of control and needs to be brought back under control or PROBLEMS will occur.

Part Two goes to his thesis that each of these emotions that seek to control us are based on a debt relationship.  Guilt: I owe you.  Anger: You owe me.  Greed: I owe me. Jealousy: God owes me.  I can certainly buy into the argument and as I stop to reflect upon my relationships with people and my response to individuals from time to time I can see one of these debts coming into play.

Part Three builds upon of these deadly emotions and provides solutions to dealing with them so they don't break relationships.  The first is perhaps the hardest.  Confronting Guilt.  Andy pushes the reader to come out into the open with his/her guilt.  He suggests that the power of secret is destroyed when guilt is brought into the light.  His thought is that our guilt stems from some secret that we hold onto and rightly suggests that confessing that secret breaks the powerful hold that guilt has on us.  This is the hardest because what he is suggesting, while liberating, also has the potential to break permanently a relationship if the one receiving the confession is not prepared to forgive.  Confession, while good for the soul, is risky because it lays the ball in the offended party's court.  The one confessing is laid open and can be left hanging.  But it is a risk worth taking to break the power of guilt.  The antidote to each succeeding emotion is so obvious that it seems ridiculous to mention but so critical to review and remember.  The antidote to anger is forgiveness.  The antidote to greed is generosity.  The antidote to jealousy is celebration.

Chapter 19, for me, made the whole book worthwhile.  It addresses our role in molding and training up our children.  They will learn from us (primarily) how to respond in most all situations that life throws our way.

"We cannot control everything our children experience, but we can influence how they process what life sends their way.  We can teach them how to guard their hearts against the inevitable firestorms of life. ... For starters we can teach them the importance of confession, forgiveness and generosity.  We can teach them to celebrate the successes of others.  We can pray.  We can model good habits..."

Enemies of the Heart is a book well worth owning, not just reading.  It is a book to refer back to often in order to help get a hold of our hearts and learn to guard them well (not just for our sake, but for the sake of our children and grandchildren).

I received a free copy of this book for review purposes from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing.