WISDOM, REFLECTION, AND GRACE

A faith memoir that aims to bring Christians closer to God.

“The only way to live a happy and fulfilled life in a fallen and depraved world,” writes Martin-Egwuonwu in her nonfiction debut, “is living a life according to the word of God.” Her brief but biblically literate work hews to a line of devotional simplicity. She centers each short chapter on some essential aspect of her faith—honoring God, giving oneself over completely to Jesus Christ, trusting in divine forgiveness, treating one’s body as a temple—and anchors her observations in scriptural quotes. Readers are urged to make God the priority in their lives—to please him, rather than pleasing others in the world around them—and the author reinforces her requests with blunt encouragement on how to simplify one’s faith: “Seek God first,” she writes. “Pray regularly. Confess your sins regularly before God asking for forgiveness and repentance. Be passionate about building an intimate relationship with the Lord.” The insistent theme, repeated throughout the book, is one of redemption, of second chances made possible by the infinite mercy of God: “No matter what your spiritual blindness is (greed, sex, drugs, unbelief, gambling, abuse, unforgiveness, etc.),” Martin-Egwuonwu writes, “our Lord and Savior can heal you to live in the image of His Son, Christ Jesus.” The author aims to reassure readers that no matter how confused or lost they might feel, God will help them. As she lays out examples from the Bible to illustrate her points, she effectively reinforces them with her own confessions of being a “broken Christian” who once wandered away from her faith. The intended readership for this book is obviously fellow Christians, and for many of them, its short passages will provide simple, unpretentious food for thought.

A short, straightforward devotional manual.