The Best Books and Studies For Whatever You're Going Through

I'm always on the hunt for new books and enjoy settling in for a good read. The titles below are ones that have helped me through many different seasons of life. I hope they are as encouraging and challenging for you as they have been for me. 

Any books you've read recently that I should add to my list? Let me know in the comments below!

Deepen Your Relationship

The Meaning of Marriage

I recommend this book to everyone I know, whether single, dating, engaged, or married. My boyfriend and I read through it together when we first starting dating, and it's a game-changer. You can also purchase the corresponding study guide. 

Mingling of Souls

Matt Chandler's marriage book focuses on Song of Songs, an Old Testament book often referred to for its teachings on sex. You'll learn about God's design for sex, dating, marriage, and much more in an easy-to-read (yet thought-provoking) format. 

Move Forward After a Broken Heart

It's Not You, It's God 

Technically not a book or a study, but this article from Desiring God really helped me experience healing a few years ago and recognize that a true sense of closure comes from the Lord alone.

Passion and Purity 

Elisabeth Elliot's life story is a remarkable one. Definitely look it up if you're not familiar. She's written countless books, and this one is specifically for singles (both men and women) on surrendering your relationships to Christ's control. 

Heal from Destructive Behaviors

How People Change

I went through a chunk of this workbook during my time in counseling in New York City. If you're looking for Biblical-based help to turn from sin and start anew, this is it.

Grow in Community

Life Together

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this book based on his time in an underground seminary during the Nazi occupation of Germany. Life Together instilled in me the importance of Christian fellowship and the reminder we cannot do this life alone. 

Make Disciples

Growing Up

Become a disciple who makes disciples. Pastor Robby Gallaty (my pastor) wrote this practical guide to growing in your faith and starting a discipleship group for the very first time. It includes a Bible reading plan, accountability questions, how to share your faith, and more. You'll find even more resources and tools online here. 

Live in Freedom

Wild and Free

I read and helped lead a women's study on this book last summer. The book helped each of us experience encouragement and hope and step into the women that God created us to be. Click here to download the leader's guide. 

Strengthen Your Prayer Life

Prayer

Another favorite from Tim Keller, this one helped me structure my prayers and make them more meaningful. It's a book you'll want to read with complete focus and attention. 

A Praying Life

I haven't read this book yet, but I've heard it's an incredible way to help you connect with God and experience great joy in prayer.

Act Courageously

Anything

Jennie Allen is the real deal. If you want to live out your faith and step boldly into what God might be calling you to, then this is the book for you. Be sure to take advantage of the study guide at the back, too. 

Practice Evangelism

Turning Everyday Conversations into Gospel Conversations

We're reading through this book at work and each week, practicing what it looks like to share the Gospel. The "three-circles method" explained here can help you transition your daily conversations into more meaningful discussions about Christ.  

Understand How Faith and Work Intersect

Every Good Endeavor

How does my career fit into God's design for my life? What's the point of work? How do I serve God if I'm not called into full-time ministry? Pick up this book to get answers to these questions and more.

Recognize God's Love for You

Crazy Love

God loves you relentlessly, and He wants a relationship with you. If you're continually striving for things and nothing ever seems to satisfies, maybe it's time to fall in love with the Lord. 

Study the Bible More Effectively

Women of the Word

The book's subtitle is "How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds," and I can't describe it any better than that. Jen Wilkin is a powerhouse Bible study leader; I recommend this book to men and women alike.

A Few More Recommendations

The Broken Way (This one's been on my list for a while! Ann Voskamp is amazing.)

Disciplines of a Godly Man (Obviously have not read this one myself.)

Gospel in Life studies

How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth

Seamless (I heard Angie Smith speak at a women's conference this year. She became a Christian later in life, and I love her honesty, humor, and the way she always points back to the Word.)

What Is the Gospel?

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If you want to talk more about Jesus Christ and faith and what-the-heck-is-all-this-stuff, shoot me a message. I love meeting new people, whether virtually or in person, and gabbing about life. 

And if you'd like to know more of my story, you can read my testimony here.

Truly, He makes beautiful things.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

We’ve heard the parable of the Good Samaritan many times. Typically when we think about it, we think about how we as Christians are to love and help others. But have you thought about how the Samaritan went out of his way to help a Levite–someone completely different from him?

“He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind;” and “your neighbor as yourself.” ”

— Luke 10:27

It’s easy to develop relationships with people who are similar to us, who have similar interests, hobbies, and backgrounds. Often times our neighbors don’t fit those criteria. What if we talk to the neighbor we have nothing in common with? Initiate conversations with the person at work who’s in a totally separate life stage than you? Strike up a discussion with the person at Starbucks you always see and who seems nothing like you?

We have to get outside of our comfort zones if we're ever to reach people with the Good News.

“Have you ever considered that interruptions and distractions in your life are divine appointments by God?” my pastor said during his message Sunday.

When your waitress at dinner is taking an especially long time, when you’re asked to head up a special event at work, when you’re assigned a middle seat on the flight, when your neighbor you barely know wants to talk as you get the mail, embrace the uncomfortable. Step into those situations with grace and patience. God doesn’t orchestrate accidents. He can use our experiences at any time as a way to spread His truth. We may never know when an inconvenience in our life is actually divinely and specifically created for us.

Head over to longhollow.com for the full post, inspired by my pastor's recent message.

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If you want to talk more about Jesus Christ and faith and what-the-heck-is-all-this-stuff, shoot me a message. I love meeting new people, whether virtually or in person, and gabbing about life. 

And if you'd like to know more of my story, you can read my testimony here.

Truly, He makes beautiful things.

Room for One More

I don't know my neighbors. I've lived in the same apartment for almost a year now, and I've yet to have a real conversation with them. I met one couple because they helped me move a couch. But we haven't talked since then except to say hello. And I don't know any of the other people in the apartments around me.

It's so easy to head into my home, preoccupied and focused on whatever it is that I want to do at that moment. Maybe you can relate.

In Luke 14, Jesus shares the parable of the large banquet. This banquet is for everyone. Jesus makes a point that we must be generous even to people who may not be able to give us anything in return. We must live generously because God has given generously to us.

If God can invite us as sinners into his perfect Home, then what stops us from inviting our neighbors into our homes here today?

Over and over in Scripture, eating a meal together connects people. In the Old Testament, God uses food to not only bring His people together but to show them more of Him.

There is always room for one more at Christ's table.

Head over to longhollow.com for the full post, inspired by my pastor's recent message.

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If you want to talk more about Jesus Christ and faith and what-the-heck-is-all-this-stuff, shoot me a message. I love meeting new people, whether virtually or in person, and gabbing about life. 

And if you'd like to know more of my story, you can read my testimony here.

Truly, He makes beautiful things.

Love With All Your Heart

I’m jittery. There are butterflies in my stomach, and I feel somewhat nauseated. My heart is pounding. My palms are slick. A slight sweat forms across my brow (and definitely in my armpits).

I’m totally enraptured. I can't focus on anything else but that one thing. That one person. I think my heart may have actually skipped a beat.

Do you know the feeling I’m talking about? Do you know that sense of excitement and adoration? It’s love, and there’s simply nothing else like it.

“Listen, Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is One.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates…

Be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.”

— Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 12

You’ve probably heard this passage before. It’s quoted all the time. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.

But as I read it today, the words carried more weight for me. I saw the full context of this command for the first time, and I could grasp why it’s so very important.

Moses spoke these words after God brought the Israelites out of slavery and gave them a new life. He’s about to bring them to the Promised Land! Moses has been leading the people, and he’s instructing them to obey the Lord before they enter the land. He’s telling them the greatest command: Love God. This is no small task. He tells them to feel this deep in their hearts and souls. Teach your children. Wear this feeling proudly for all to see. Display it daily in the way you walk. Let your home be evidence of your love for God. And don’t ever, ever forget the darkness and the slavery that God delivered you from.

This is deep, life-changing, soul-enrapturing love.

This is the kind of love that changes your whole life and forms the core of your very being. This is called the greatest command for a reason.

What’s even more amazing is the fact that God loves us a million times deeper than the kind of love we’re capable of. We’re fickle humans; we love, and we forget. We love other things more than God. But God, He actually is love. He loved us so much that He made His son, Jesus, fully man to take on our sins and die the horrific death we deserved. He took on the cross for us. He rose to heaven and grants us eternal life!

Matt Chandler says,

“Listen to people talk all the time. They fell out of love. ‘I just don't love him anymore.’ In fact, the thing that's probably most frowned upon in predominant culture when it comes to love is someone who loves by will, what the Hebrews called ahava. It was a love of the will. It was ‘I'm not going anywhere.’ Don't romanticize that. That's not rose petals and violin and candles being lit and, ‘Oh, honey, I'm not going anywhere.’ All right? That's something on fire over here, a knife flung past your head, you're hunkered down, there's chaos everywhere, and you say, ‘I'm not going anywhere.’

Ahava says, ‘I've seen the ugly side of you and I'm staying.’”

Ahava is what Jesus did for us, and it’s the love we are privileged to receive if we accept it and believe it.

We have to love Him in return. That’s the greatest command.

I love my family. I love my friends. I love taking walks, I love drinking coffee, I love watching This Is Us. I love all these things, and I’ll talk about them all day long. Where does Jesus fit into that? Are we willing to talk about Him the way we talk about these lesser things? Do we love Him and look at Him with that jittery feeling we do when we’re in love?

I know I often fall short. I get way more excited about stuff that ultimately doesn’t matter. I let my other loves come before my love of God. There’s nothing wrong with loving your family, your friends, or even This Is Us. But when the order of our loves is upside down, we’ve made a mistake. We’ve forgotten the ultimate commandment.

With the world we live in, it’s so easy to get caught up in cultural commands. Man’s commands tell us to make money. Be successful. Find a spouse and have a nice family. Be healthy. Be pretty. Be strong. And make sure you have it “all together.” Achieve balance.

I don’t see those commands in the Bible. I see God telling us to love Him and to let our love for Him pour of our lives in everything we do.

Remembering the darkness that the Lord redeemed me from is what allows me to love Him first and foremost. He brought me, just like the Israelites, out of slavery. He made me into a new creation. Praise God for that. He loves me with ahava love. He changed my life; He called me into His Kingdom. I want to tell about His goodness all the day long!

My prayer is that I never forget the love God shows me and the freedom He gives me. I pray you won’t either. Think about the depths He called you out of and the new life He’s granted you. If we realize God loves us that much, how could we not love him with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our strength?

And if you are reading this and you’re thinking, I don’t know if I have been given a new life, then will you tell God that? Will you ask Jesus into your heart right here, right now--will you profess Him as Lord and Savior, and let His love transform you from the inside out?

Read my story. Read the stories of these beautiful women. Watch my pastor’s story. God is powerful, and He changes people’s lives every single day.

He loves you, and He wants your love in return.