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Enemies of the HEart

by Tawnya Gregory

September 27, 2011

@Tiggercooks

I want to begin by saying that this is my first ever Andy Stanley book. I have seen him on Joyce Meyer’s television show a couple of times and he seemed interesting enough. Sometimes, I make the mistake of thinking that if the person is a good speaker they are a good writer and I have found that is not the case with many. Andy Stanley is one of the few exceptions to that. He is so very personable in his book Enemies of the Heart. He talks about some very personal things and gets you thinking about your heart and how it is working with God.

In this book Andy talks about the four things that keep a person from giving their whole heart to God. He even talks about his personal struggle with some of these things. As I was reading his book, I realized that some of this totally applied to me as well. It is hard to give it all over to God and not hang on to something, a tiny piece of your heart just in case things don’t go exactly as planned. I know this kind of thinking all too well because I have engaged in it in the past.

Andy also talks about confession. Real confession. Not just laying in bed listing off the bad things you have done that day, week , month, or even year. He talks about taking responsibility for your actions and your confession. Saying that if your actions have harmed another person, intentional or not, you need to go to that person and confess what you have done and ask for forgiveness. Sometimes, this can occur years after the incident, like he talks about in the book. Once you confess properly then you can go about your life.

Anger, Guilt, Greed, and Jealousy are the four things that Andy talks about in this book that can and will keep you from giving your whole heart to God.  I think that if we all look closely enough we will find that one or more of these have impacted our own lives in some way. I know that I had to come to terms with my own issues while reading this book and it made it harder to get through because I kept putting it down because I would think of things in my own life that were right on target for what he was talking about.

I love how Andy Stanley writes, he is more of a conversationalist than a writer. Reading this book was a lot like sitting down with a friend and having a wonderful conversation about God. He is no way judgmental or preachy. He gives examples from his own life and that really helped me to understand what he was talking about.

If you have never read an Andy Stanley book, I recommend you do!! He is amazing!!

Enemies of the Heart by Andy Stanley Leader's Guide

I got this book for free from WalterBrook Multnomah for the sole purpose of writing this review.