Experiencing Friendship With God by Faith Eury Cho Book Review

About the Book:

In the wilderness of the soul, we can become more familiar with pain than progress and more acquainted with loneliness than companionship. But what if the purpose of our wandering is not to reach the Promised Land but to recognize that God is with us in the desert? 

In Experiencing Friendship with God, speaker and pastor Faith Eury Cho draws on Brother Lawrence’s ancient wisdom about intimacy with God to help us know God’s Presence more fully in today’s complicated world. With practical ideas and stories from her own spiritual journey, Faith explores how to

• wrestle with the tension of believing in God even when we can’t sense Him 
• glean wisdom from Israel’s journey in the wilderness
• understand what a life centered around God’s Presence looks like
• find tools to deepen our intimacy with God 
• embrace the paradox of mystery and faith and of longing and hope

If knowing the Presence of God is our greatest desire, then every season of our lives has significance—even the wilderness. In that barren land, we realize that the purpose of each moment is God Himself. 

And when we do that, we will understand that we were never without Him after all.

You can read an excerpt here.

My Review:

Having been a Christian since childhood, I have read scores of books on Christian growth and maturity. Cho's book is the best of them all because she not only informs and encourages but gives practical suggestions as well.

This book is a result of her own journey combined with inspiration by Brother Lawrence. Cho wants her readers to experience an intimate, authentic and passionate friendship with God. She writes about her own experience of wilderness. She found that the wilderness experience revealed the fragile nature of her relationship with God. She felt God was not present and if He was present, He was not enough.

She realized knowing His presence was the purpose of the wilderness. It was really the purpose of everything. “...[Y]our friendship with God must be your highest priority and the center of all you do.” (289/2348) All of that is well said and has been said in other books. But the difference in this book is that Cho gives us practical ideas on how to do that.

She encourages us to embrace the mystery. She helps us in the skill of acknowledging the presence of the Holy Spirit. She gives ideas for developing spiritual muscles so that we go from co-existence to communion. She helps us get back on track when we wander off.

This is the most enlightening and practical book I have read on cultivating a real relationship with God. It is a book I'll read again and again. If there is one book you read about spiritual growth this year, make it this one. If you really want to abide in His Presence, even when you feel you are in the wilderness, read this book.

My rating: 5/5 stars.

About the Author:

Faith Eury Cho is the CEO and founder of the Honor Summit, a nonprofit organization that centers Asian American women in the mission of God. Alongside her husband, Pastor David Cho, Faith is co-founder and co-pastor of Mosaic Covenant Church in New Jersey. She and David have four children.

WaterBrook, 192 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)