Review: Authentic Living by Richard Exley

Authentic Living: 365 Devotions for Deliberate Faith. 

I liked the sound of the title. I liked the description. Unfortunately, the content didn’t match up.


The Amazon description says:

To live an authentic, fulfilled life we need to both understand and practice the core beliefs of the Christian faith. Being intentional about pursuing Christ is often challenging in our confusing, messy world, but like the biblical character Daniel who did not compromise his values, we must take small, deliberate steps to grow in spiritual integrity. The short, inspirational devotions in Authentic Living illustrate how we can be more deliberate in our faith each and every day through small actions like asking forgiveness, offering guidance, praying specifically, and more. With these simple yet profound readings, we can realize a more fulfilling life and faith one thought, one action, one day at a time.

Well, the devotions are certainly short. And simple. Profound? Not so much. At least, not for anyone who has read the Bible and has anything more than a basic understanding of the core beliefs of Christianity. And I certainly didn’t see it illustrating how to be more intentional or deliberate or authentic in my faith … which was what I was interested in.

I haven’t read the whole book, and I’m unlikely to. I can’t tell you how far I’ve got, because all the days run together in my review copy, with no dates or even ‘Day 1’, ‘Day 2’ etc. to separate them (which got a little confusing at times, as he often speaks on the same theme for several consecutive days. And that got a little repetitive).

It’s not bad. It’s all good, solid stuff. It’s biblical. It’s preaching God, not man. It’s just not what I was looking for.

Thanks to Worthy Publishing and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.