How Joyful People Think

     BOOK REVIEW:   Two people can face the same type of adversity and have two vastly different reactions, even when they have the same background and worldview. What makes the difference? Perspective---the way they think about things. Right thinking matters, and thankfully it's something we all can learn to do.
     In this insightful unpacking of Philippians 4:8, pastor Jamie Rasmussen shows you how to focus your thoughts and attention on the things in life God has declared will make a meaningful impact on both your outlook and experience. It's the kind of thinking that has the power to change us, pointing us away from self-pity, anger, and resentment toward contentment and personal peace.

     MY REVIEW:   I quite enjoyed this book. It is practical and down-to-earth. It's easy to see that Jamie put a lot of time and research into it. I really liked how he studied and explained the Greek meanings of the words in Philippians 4:8. It is really neat to see what the root word is, how to pronounce it, how many times and in what importance it is used in the Bible, and how much more it means than what we think "whatsoever things are pure, lovely, true, just, etc" mean.
     This book is easy to believe---it feels accomplishable, like what it has to say can be made practical in our own lives, not a book of someone's saintly achievements that we can never hope to reach. How we think is really important, and the better we understand these different aspects of thinking, the easier it will be to emulate them.
     A few quotes I especially liked:

• " 'And the God, who is Peace, will be with you'. Notice that the core of the promise is not Peace but God, who brings Peace. The promise is the very presence of God, a God who 'will be with you' as a result of your learning to embrace His prescribed way of thinking."

• "God is much more concerned with a particularly different kind of thinking, which leads to a particularly different set of goals and results. This different kind of thinking involves altered perspectives and a more rigorous application than merely focusing on positives, possibilities, or problem solving. It requires learning to think in ways that God has clearly prescribed. It involves learning to think as God wants us to think. It's also the kind of thinking that will make us more mature in our personhood, more faithful to Him, more loving toward others, and more satisfied within. It's the kind of thinking befitting a follower of Jesus Christ."

     

  I received a copy of this book from BAKER PUBLISHERS and was not required to write a positive review.