The way we know God truly in our hearts is through the right use of our minds. But this is an empty emotionalism where that joy is not awakened and sustained by true views of God for who he really is.” Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (Crossway: Wheaton, 2011), 37. John Piper rightly says, “The apex of glorifying God is enjoying him with the heart. It’s wonderful when someone’s heart overflows with affection for the Lord, but emotion alone isn’t enough. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” ( John 14:15). But alone, a swell of emotion toward the divine is no measure of salvation. “She loves Jesus!” seems to be a popular go-to defense of women bloggers, speakers and authors who profess faith in Christ, at the very point where they’re professing something other than orthodox Christianity. In our day, strong emotions take center stage. Wilkin invites women on a challenging journey to learn how to study their Bibles for themselves, for the purpose of enlarging their hearts as well as obeying the God they love. But I was missing the important truth that the heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” “For years I tried to love God with my heart to the neglect of my mind,” she writes, “not recognizing my need to grow in the knowledge of the ‘I AM.’ Any systematic study of the Bible felt mechanical, even a little like an act of faithlessness or an admission that the Holy Spirit’s insight during a quiet time wasn’t enough for me.

And that’s what makes it different and valuable.Ī women’s Bible study teacher and mom who sits under the preaching of Matt Chandler at The Village Church in Texas, Wilkin didn’t always approach the Bible this way. This is a petite, readable, yet meaty book. Still, for all the studies, there remains a high level of biblical illiteracy. A walk down the aisle at your local Christian bookstore shows that titles in the women’s Bible studies and Christian growth categories are popular. Featuring fragmented sentences, they favor humor over hermeneutics - in my experience.

I don’t typically like to read Christian books for women, by women because so many read less like serious books and more like casual blog posts.

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