Hustling God
Why We Work So Hard for What God Wants to Give
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
We work hard at life. We try to get better jobs, better homes, better relationships, and even a better spirituality. We are like Jacob in the Old Testament. His name means "striver, schemer, supplanter, hustler." He could have been the poster boy for the American Dream.But author Craig Barnes says this is not the way we should be living our lives. We should not try to manipulate and hustle ourselves into a place of advantage with God, a position that has been ours all along. After all, God is the one who climbed down the ladder to be with us. Using true anecdotes from the men, women, and families of the churches he has served, Barnes invites hard-running, stressed-out, burned-out people to stop striving. Life is not something we grasp and clutch to us, but a gift God freely gives. Only when we open our hands can God fill them with the blessings he has been waiting to lavish upon us all along.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barnes takes readers on a lifelong journey with Jacob paralleling this biblical figure's internal struggles with our own. As Barnes states, Jacob was born to strive. What he could not have by right, he deceived to obtain. He was born in a family of deceivers, became a deceiver himself, had sons who deceived. Still, as God's chosen one to receive the blessing, Jacob was indeed blessed. He just didn't see it that way. His envy and striving nature robbed him of all the joy God so desired him to realize. Contrast Jacob with his son Joseph, who had real cause to complain. As Barnes shows, it's all in the attitude. Barnes (Yearning: Living Between How It Is and How It Ought to Be) centers Jacob's mistakes around modern-day anecdotes and stories so clearly that readers realize we are no different from our historical counterparts. In 11 chapters, the author discusses the many facets of our internal struggle to live our lot in life with good grace and still dare to go after our dreams. Specifically, Barnes details our struggles with love, work, ourselves, God and related issues of learning to develop the faith that sees God's faithfulness in every circumstance.