I Will be Found by You by Francis Frangipane

I have not read a book on spirituality this penetrating in a long time. “I believe,” Frangipane writes, “that the real goal of Christianity is not to create a religion about God but that we would actually know Him...” (ix,x)

That is how he starts his book on seeking God. Frangipane believes that pursuing God is the secret to a fulfilled life. The highest form of seeking God is not when we do it because we need something from Him but when we seek Him for Himself. This might mean forsaking television and the Internet. It may mean setting aside hours, yes hours, each day.

Frangipane writes that when we seek God, He will come. He deals with the possibility of spiritual warfare and the hindrances that will occur. He explores the necessity of setting priorities and breaking our passivity. He reminds us of the essential role of worship. He writes about honesty as the root of humility, the essential characteristic leading to prayer and an increasing access to God.

I'm a life long Christian and I found this section particularly interesting. “Ultimately we will discover that study and church attendance are but forms that have little satisfaction in and of themselves. These activities must become what the Lord has ordained them to be: means through which we seek and find God.” (79) He reminds us that we often content ourselves with a religion about Christ, with studying facts about God. He draws a revealing parallel, comparing reading about sunrises to actually experiencing one.

If your heart longs to know God, if you are willing to choose to live for one purpose – to give pleasure to God – this book is for you. If you have come to the place of realizing that bringing gratification to the heart of God, not self gratification, is the key to lasting happiness, this book is for you.

One might think that reading a book about being called to such a devoted life of knowing and pleasing God would be depressing. But it is not. Yes, it is a challenging book but it is also a freeing one. Frangipane encourages us to love God in whatever state we find ourselves. That is remarkably freeing. Wherever you are in your Christian walk, this book will help you understand what it means to seek God and live a truly fulfilled life.

Note: some fifteen of the twenty five chapters in this is from material previously published.

Francis Frangipane is the author of numerous books and is the founding director of In Christ's Image Training, an online ministry school. You can find out more about the author and his ministry at www.frangipane.org.

Passio (Charisma House Book Group), 195 pages.

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