I have been a fan of Jamie Ivey’s podcast “The Happy Hour” pretty much from the first episode. It is a podcast I look forward to listening to each week!!! So when Jamie mentioned she was writing a book I knew it would be a book high on my to be read (TBR) list! Then I found out a launch team was being put together and I immediately applied to be on it and was accepted!
If You Only Knew is a book every woman should read…Jamie is so open, honest, and so vulnerable about her past and how she came to find freedom in her relationship with Christ. We are so scared of telling our “ugly” stories and the things we struggle with because we fear what people may say or think about us…I know I do. This has been a big struggle throughout my whole life thinking “what will people think of me”…and there was a sentence that stuck out to me and has had me thinking on it ever since I read it, Jamie said “When we spend our days living in fear of what the world would think of us, if they really knew us, we haven’t yet believed and trusted the truths He says about us.” Wow…how powerful is that statement?!?
The older I get the more I realize what true grace is and what a gift God has given us by gifting that to us. Here is another quote from the book that really got me…”He is more concerned with drawing our hearts toward Him, not getting us put together enough so that we’re capable of coming to Him. The reason He wants us acknowledging and repenting of our sins is so that we can follow Him, not so He can confirm why He’s rejecting us. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. (John 3:17)” If you aren’t a follower of Jesus, know that He isn’t asking you to get your life together before you follow Him. He wants you to follow Him, worship Him, and give Him your all. And when we do that, our life does start to get together. Our picture of this is pretty much all wrong – that we need be perfected before we come to God. In reality, the exact opposite is true. He does the perfecting in us the more we come to know Him.” I had heard that verse my whole life growing up, but not until reading this book did it truly come alive for me and made me realize that God sent His Son so we could have a better life and love Him.
This book is possibly one of my favorites I will have read for 2018. I could go on and on with truths that Jamie shared that has made an impact on me and that I am still thinking on and processing. This book is so freeing on so many levels and I am so thankful that Jamie took the brave step that so many of us are scared to do and told her story. I am learning that there is freedom in telling and sharing about your struggles and while I am honestly not there yet…it is something I am going to be working towards with God’s help.
Please go get this book…you will not be disappointed and I believe it will make a difference in your life and living with freedom that comes only from Christ.
Until next time…keep it simple!
Lindsey
*side note…I am so excited that Jamie Ivey is coming to Northwest Arkansas for an event for her new book and I got tickets!!! No one hardly comes to NWA to do things like this and I am so excited to get to meet her in person! I am totally fangirling over here!!!*
**This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from the publisher. All opinions are my own.**
