A Year with God: Living Out the Spiritual Disciplines [Hardcover]

Richard J. Foster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 2009

Many people are longing to find the footprint of God in their daily lives. This beautiful daily companion is comprised of 365 selections of scripture, commentary, meditations, and daily exercises to help readers see how they can bring their entire life into a life with Immanuel - a God who is with his people.

In Richard Foster′s best-selling book, Celebration of Discipline, he explored the "classic disciplines," or central spiritual practices of the Christian faith. Foster showed that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found. In A Year with God, the spiritual disciplines are presented in such a way that does not destroy the soul but enables the reader to enter into a transforming life with God.

Through daily spiritual exercises and meditations, A Year with God explores eighteen spiritual disciplines. The inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service help prepare one to make the world a better place. The corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration bring one nearer to others and to God. Each discipline will be given twenty days of readings, beginning with scripture and followed by commentary, a meditation, and a spiritual exercise. Practicing these spiritual disciplines will help readers live intentionally, contributing to a more balanced spiritual life and a reformation of the inner self.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard J. Foster is the author of several bestselling books, including Celebration of Discipline, Streams of Living Water, Life with God, and Prayer, which was Christianity Today's Book of the Year and the winner of the Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. He is the founder of RenovarÉ, an organization and a movement committed to the renewal of the church of Jesus Christ in all its multifaceted expressions, and the editor of The Life with God Bible.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061768200
• ISBN-13: 978-0061768200
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, But Not As Connected to The Bible At It Should Have Been, August 17, 2010

By 

Fr. Charles Erlandson (Tyler, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Year with God: Living Out the Spiritual Disciplines (Hardcover)

Richard Foster has for many years helped build up the lives of Christians with his work, especially, on the spiritual disciplines. I've been reading The Spiritual Formation Bible and enjoying it. "A Year With God" is another in a series of books by Foster related to the spiritual disciplines. While Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" helped start the current revival of the spiritual disciplines by describing each of them, "A Year with God" takes the disciplines and matches them up with Scripture passages and devotions. There are a total of 365, or one for each day of the year.

Foster has organized the 365 one-page devotionals around the 17 spiritual disciplines: prayer, study, confession, worship, service, secrecy, guidance, meditation, solitude, fellowship, fasting, chastity, submission, sacrifice, simplicity, and celebration. This is a very profitable way to present the devotionals, and it helps to reinforce a life of spiritual discipline for those who are seeking spiritual formation in this manner. I also like the fact that, unlike some other devotionals, the Scripture passage is often more than just one isolated verse.

However, there are a few important ways in which this devotional book falls short of what it should have been. First, I should mention that it is most useful to those already familiar with Foster's 17 spiritual disciplines, and less useful for those who are not. More importantly, the Scripture passage at the beginning of each devotional is often only loosely related to the devotional that follows. Because of this, and the fact that Scripture is not read continuously or in the larger context, the important aspect of having meditated deeply on Scripture is not fostered as much as it should have been. Also, the devotionals are often too short to provide adequate, deep reflection on the Scripture at hand. The Bible is therefore presented not as the basis and center of the spiritual disciplines but only as a prooftext or springboard for discussing them.

It seems almost as if Foster has written one more work related to his favorite topic of spiritual disciplines that is based more on the needs of the market (short, daily devotionals that don't reflect deeply on Scripture as a whole) and the need to extend his franchise than to actually promote the very disciplines he writes so passionately about.

I know this devotional will be of great benefit to many, and it is better than many others out there. But it could and should have been much more.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Far, It's Great!, January 27, 2010

By 

foreverstudent "Les" (NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Year with God: Living Out the Spiritual Disciplines (Hardcover)

We are using this book in our small group at church and are finding that it is taking us to a whole new level of self-examination. We have some members traveling and they have purchased the book and read the daily meditations until they return. We meet on a weekly basis, so have agreed to read 5 days per week, keep a journal and then share our experiences and reactions at our meetings. I would definitely recommend it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Resounding Addition to Foster's Previous Fine Works, June 17, 2010

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Year with God: Living Out the Spiritual Disciplines (Hardcover)

Richard J. Foster is the evangelical touchstone voice for thoughtful, pause-worthy spiritual reflective readings. Throughout the years, he has provided interested Christ followers and seekers a practical pathway to living out those sometimes seemingly unattainable spiritual disciplines. Above all, Foster's work takes the "believing" in one's heart and mind into the "working it out" day-by-day moments of real life. In this current text, co-edited with Julia L. Roller, Foster presents 365 one-page daily devotionals that include generous portions of scripture and commentary, with many punctuated by intermittent prayers and to-do suggestions.

This hefty hardcover text is broken down by topic. Readers will appreciate how easy it is to handle and navigate by simply checking the contents page and perusing through each subject area for one's area of interest. The authors expound in depth upon each subject by relegating roughly 20 days to every discipline. Included in the resource are a brief overview of the topic at hand and then every area's "mini-book" of allotted days. Foster delves deep --- as is his characteristic style --- into such topics as prayer, study, confession, worship, service, secrecy, guidance, meditation, solitude, fellowship, fasting, chastity, submission, sacrifice, silence, simplicity and celebration.

One of the most telling areas of a Christian's life is how he conducts himself in regard to selflessly serving those around him as following Christ's example. Foster writes that service can be defined as "Loving, thoughtful, active promotion of the good of others and the causes of God in our world, through which we experience the many little deaths of going beyond ourselves." He then notes the scriptural reference for this principle: "Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received" (1 Peter 4:10).

Broken down into two sections ("Spiritual Practice: Serving God in Every Task" and "Spiritual Practice: Not to Be Served, but to Serve"), the editors guide readers to first right themselves with God and then respond in loving others as themselves. Some of the sub-topics include serving and carrying, consecrated for God's service, service in the home, a willing heart, do not withhold good, washing one another's feet, servants of the Lord, serving each other's needs, a servant of the Gospel, and a light to the nations.

Interestingly, Foster and Roller manage to bring a true freshness to these age-old spiritual studies. Somehow, everyone is both ancient in wisdom and current to today's believer. Excellently written and presented, those new to the Christian faith will find themselves gently instructed and encouraged. Those seasoned Christ followers will find equal measures of challenge and perceptive Godly counsel as they continue their spiritual journey. This devotional is a resounding addition to Foster's previous fine works, and it is no wonder that his resume of accomplishments is associated with all things honorable, noteworthy and true.

--- Reviewed by Michele Howe, author of STILL GOING IT ALONE: Mothering with Faith and Finesse, and Single Parenting Columnist