I’m a reader.
Of course, I love to read a good fiction book, but even more than that, I love to read books that challenge my thinking and change my perspective.
I’ve been thinking about how books have been my mentors over the years. They have affected my life and how I’ve lived out my faith.
They’ve challenged me to think deeply and grow in my relationship with God.
With that in mind, these would be the top 12 books that have strengthened my faith.
The Bible: I love The Life Application Bible but I also use an ESV (English Standard Version) Bible and The Message Bible on occasion. I try to read one chapter in Proverbs a day as well as a chapter in the New Testament and a chapter in the Old Testament. God’s Word is my number one book that has strengthened my faith!
Experiencing God Workbook by Henry Blackaby: This was a game-changer for me. I learned so much about God and walking by faith doing this study. There’s an Experiencing God book, but I think the Experiencing God workbook is the best. They also have an Experiencing God Student Edition we did with our teens.
Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster: Celebration of Disciplines lays out a clear path for spiritual growth using the spiritual disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, celebration, and personal examination and resulting change. I learned so much about the internal process of spiritual growth from this book.
Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels: This book taught me to pray. It taught me how to talk to God about everything. It also helped me to slow down, draw near to God, and make prayer a priority.
Invitation to Solitude and Silence by Ruth Haley Barton: A powerful book that invited me to experience solitude and silence where I could experience the presence of God and really hear His voice.
Victory Over The Darkness by Neil Anderson: This book gives you practical, productive ways to discover who you are in Christ. When you realize the power of your true identity, you can shed the burdens of your past, stand against evil influences, and become the person God empowers you to be.
Bondage Breaker by Neil Anderson: Harmful habits, negative thinking, and irrational feelings can all lead to sinful behavior and keep you in bondage. If you feel trapped by any of these strongholds in your life, know that you are not alone—you can break free. Neil Anderson offers a wholistic approach to spiritual warfare that is roted in the Word of God.
The Steps to Freedom in Christ by Neil Anderson: The Steps to Freedom in Christ is a comprehensive process that will help you resolve your personal and spiritual conflicts in Christ. Experience daily victory over sin and doubt and reclaim the promise of freedom that Christ offers to all who call on His name. Mark and I sometimes use this resource in our marriage coaching sessions and intensives to help couples and individuals clean out the “junk in the trunk” that strangles their life and relationship.
When I Lay My Isaac Down by Carol Kent: Carol and Gene Kent’s only child–a son–is in prison. When I Lay My Isaac Down tells their story and shares the transformational principles they learned about forgiveness and faith. Dealing with her anger, grief, and shame, Carol could have given up. Instead she tells a highly personal, heartbreaking, and uplifting story that will bolster your faith. It certainly bolstered mine.
This Present Darkness by Frank Perretti: While this is a fiction book, it taught me more about the power of prayer than any other book I’ve read. In this book and the second in the series Piercing the Darkness, Perretti brings alive spiritual warfare and helps us to understand how to fight battles we know are there but we cannot see.
Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers: This book brought alive the stories of five women God chose to use—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Each was faced with extraordinary—even scandalous—challenges. Each took great personal risk to fulfill her calling. Each was destined to play a key role in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. This is a Biblical fiction book that brought alive stories I’d read in the Bible but had never really understood the impact of their lives.
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers: Also a fiction book, but designed to bring alive the story of Gomer and Hosea from the book of Hosea in the Bible. Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love for us.
What about you? What books have strengthened your faith that you would add to this list?
(FYI: I’ve gathered these books over in my Amazon Shop for easy reference! If you aren’t already an Amazon Prime member who receives free shipping you can Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
(One more thing: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. You can read my disclosure statement here.)
In addition to reading the Bible – and I like to read multiple versions, or on my computer to use a site like Bible Gateway that allows me to look at passages in multiple versions – I will add my 12 books that really strengthened my faith over the years, going kind of in the order of my young adult years towards the present. My list actually includes 2 of yours as you will see – which means my list is now 14 because I felt it was only fair to add 12 new ones along with the 2 of yours I re-included! Fair? Anyway, I could easily write a paragraph about how and why each of these has changed my life and faith journey and I could also easily add another 10 or so that were equally profound but I will stop here for now. Thanks for the invitation – this was a fun exercise!
1. The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss – one of the two most life-changing books I read as a child and set me on the path of my life calling
2. Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairborn – a novel about poverty, race, love, heroes, courage – again, totally life changing for me
3. Christian Counter Culture: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by John Stott, who I also had the privilege of meeting in person and driving to the airport for a one-on-one!
4. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider. Read it when first published and met him and his wife many years later they are close friends of many in our church. Have read all of this books since then. Major life change.
5. Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
6. Mere Christianity, A Grief Observed and Narnia books all by CS Lewis
7. The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence
8. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson
9. Open Hearts, Open Homes, Karen Mains and the Hospitality: God’s Call to Compassion Bible Study guide by Patty Pell – LIFE CHANGING
10. Permission Granted, Margot Starbuck
11. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
12. When I Lay my Isaac Down and Waiting Together by Carol Kent
13. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and American’s Original Sin by Bryan Stevenson and Jim Wallis (and mostly everything by Jim Wallis)
14. Are We There Yet? The Ultimate Road Trip Adopting and Raising 22 Kids, by Hector and Sue Badeau – yes, this is the book we wrote about our family but the reason I include it here is that during the process of writing, God drew us closer to Himself and increased our faith in ways that we had never before experienced. This book was a healing salve to the grief over the death of our son and the light to our path about the next steps He had planned for our journey, so it was indeed life changing for us.
Sue, thank you for sharing your list! It’s so fun to see what books have influenced someone else. I agree, it was a good exercise to go through. I’m trying to do it in all areas of my life…so I’ll be sharing more lists in the future!
The Armor of God & work book by Priscilla Shirer, Everybody Always & Love Does by Bob Goff, Follow Me by David Platt,