A Sudden Glory by Sharon Jaynes

Have you felt like there is something missing in your spiritual life? You know you should be feeling something more in our Christian life.

It is a common cry of the heart, Sharon writes. “You long to feel close to God but sense there's just something lacking, that you've missed the mysterious formula to make it happen.” (4)

Acts 17:28 came to Sharon's mind. She meditated on it for a year. “I came to realize that what He wants for us is to sense His presence, experience His love, and delight in intimate relationship as we live and move and have our being in sacred union with Him.” (9)

She writes of those moments when God makes Himself known personally – a sudden glory.

Her aim in this book is that we will be reminded of God's passionate pursuit of our heart and that we would let ourselves be caught all over again. She explores what it means to be in union with Christ. She helps us see how to receive the sudden glory moments in Bible reading, prayer, circumstances, creation, and people.

“God has pulled out all the stops,” Sharon writes, to reveal glimpses of His glory.” (66) We are just not paying attention. She challenges readers to get a notebook or journal and begin chronicling how God makes Himself known. “When your union with God is restored through your relationship with Jesus, when in Him we live and move and have our being becomes a reality in your life, your ears will hear, your eyes will see, and your senses will detect the glory of the Lord turning ordinary days into extraordinary treasures.” (69)

This is a very encouraging book. Sharon uses many of her own experiences to illustrate becoming aware of those moments of sudden glory.

She has a very good section on suffering. “Could it be that the puncture wounds in the canvas of your life – the losses, the disappointments, the crushing blows – might actually become the rent places of the soul through which you can see God?” (133)

In addition to the encouraging nature of the book itself, there is a twenty four page study guide at the end of the book that would be great for personal or group study. This book would make an excellent choice for a woman's small group.

Sharon Jaynes is an international conference speaker and author of eighteen books. She is the cofounder of Girlfriends in God, a nondenominational conference and online ministry. The online devotions reach about five hundred thousand subscribers daily. To learn more, visit www.GirlfriendsInGod.com. Sharon and her husband live in North Carolina and have one grown son. You can find out more at www.SharonJaynes.com or www.facebook.com/SharonJaynes.

Multnomah, 230 pages. Publisher's product page.

You can read the first chapter here.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review.