Keep Your Friends Close & Keep Your Enemies Closer

Today's post is another review that I wrote for the Blogging for Books program. Enjoy!

I chose to read Andy Stanley’s Enemies of the Heart for a number of reasons:

1. It had a nifty looking cover.

2. I’ve heard of Andy Stanley, which means the book has to be good, right? (Don’t mind that I’ve never read anything written by him.)

3. It was available on Kindle, which is always a bonus.

4. I was actually interested in the topic of the book.

And though I’ve been prone to delivering rather cynical and negative reviews as of late, I was pleasantly surprised with this book. It was one of those books I actually wanted to read in my spare time, instead of feeling obliged for whatever reason. And it actually made a few good points.

The premise of the book is that we don’t look at the condition of our hearts nearly enough. Instead, we fix our behaviors and then wonder why we blow up at people and are unsure of why it happens. Stanley proposes that if this is the case, there’s a “heart” problem.

The book is organized well, addressing the four sicknesses of our hearts that Stanley has concocted: anger, guilt, greed, and jealousy. Without a doubt, we’ve all experienced each of these things at some point in our lives or another. Stanley does well to examine why these sicknesses exist and then proposes tangible solutions to those problems, not just clichés such as “pray more” or “trust God.”

After the what, the why, and the how are examined, Stanley wraps up the book by touching on leaving a legacy and leading by example for our children and addresses lust, another heart condition that is a little different from the other four (but important nonetheless).

Ultimately, though, this book is well put-together, well thought out, thorough (yet concise!), and it makes you think and moves you to action. What more could you ask for?

(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.)