Everyday Grace by Jessica Thompson

ISBN-13: 9780764212994
Publisher: Bethany House

In Everyday Grace, Jessica Thompson discusses the importance of working through relationships with God’s grace. She emphasizes that Christianity is not about relying on your own strength to be better and do better because failure is part of life. She states, “It is good to be aware that you fail as long as you remember that he didn’t and that he loves us regardless of our failures” (pg. 40). Relationships are hard and often Christians feel that if they’re not doing everything perfectly, they’re failing. This is where the grace of Jesus is so important because it takes the onus off of the Christian and puts it back into the loving arms of Jesus. Does that mean it is ok to misbehave? Absolutely not, but it is ok to understand that each person’s life is not performance based, rather through continual humility before God and dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit.

Ms. Thompson talks about each person gaining their identity in the wrong places. She references how often people use employment, achievements and their children as identity markers. For any season that a believer may currently be in, Everyday Grace offers great truths that are great to learn and relearn.

She also writes about God’s love and desire for fellowship with His creation. It is a friendship that He establishes and desires with each person and she states, “He doesn’t feel obligated to be our friend; it is his joy to be in relationship with us” (pg. 74). She discusses how to kill a friendship by putting too much weight on the other person’s ability or inability to be everything we need. “We place so many expectations on each other! Unrealistic expectations kill grace” (pg. 120).

Ms. Thompson takes the reader through each person of the Trinity to understand the expectations and provisions made so that a godly life is possible. In that, she discusses the truth behind how difficult relationships affect each person and she states, “Difficult people rip away our fig leaf of good reputation and it hurts” (pg. 186).

Throughout the book, Ms. Thompson uses quotes from many great authors including C.H. Spurgeon, Octavius Winslow, Francis Chan and John Piper to emphasize her point and add influence.

Overall, I felt Everyday Grace was a good read. It’s a book that would be great for a new believer, or someone who struggles with performance issues. I would recommend it and give it four out of five stars. I received this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for my honest review in the Blogger Review Program which I’ve provided here.