In her book, Free of Me, Sharon Hodde Miller focuses on a cultural mind-set infiltrating more of us than not. Often we do not even recognize its presence until our eyes are opened by the truth gently being set out before us.

Free of Me addresses the mind-set of self-focus impacting every part of our lives – our relationships, our faith, our calling, our purpose. Self-focus causes us to grow short sighted as we truly cannot see beyond ourselves.

It will shrink our lives and shrivel up every ounce of joy as life was truly never meant to be all about us.

“When you make things about you that are not about you, it’s a terrible burden. Living for yourself is a crushing weight. Deep down, we all know that if we could stop trying to people-please, stop trying to measure up, stop focusing on our flaws, and stop dwelling on rejection, life would be a lot easier. If we could only focus a little less on ourselves and a little more on God, our shoulders would feel so much lighter.”
~ Sharon Hodde Miller, Free of Me, page 14

In this book, the author desires to open our eyes so that our focus is shifted off our ourselves and onto God. As easy as this may sound, it will not come easy for as broken people, we have a bent towards inward focus.

The book is written in three parts:

• Part One – highlights the problem of self-distraction
• Part Two – discusses seven areas we tend to make about ourselves and the consequences
• Part Three – brings steps to walk in freedom

The book is not a self-help book (no pun intended), instead the book brings a message of truth which leads to greater freedom in Christ. The book is about His story being played out in the lives of every believer.

Every page of this book points to the greater message, the bigger story, pushing us to not settle for anything less than an abundance of Christ in our lives displayed to a world desperately in need of Him.

Yes, God heals our brokenness, but the point is we are not to remain focused on our brokenness, but focused on the Healer. Every day we can live in the freedom His salvation brings.

He heals us so that our focus for the remainder of our days is His story – the Gospel message – for all people, for all time.

This is a book we all need. Sharon weaves her own journey to find freedom from herself with transparency, baring her soul for us all to learn from her personal experiences, and more so, from Scripture.

*** The author and Baker Publishing provided a copy of this book  in exchange for my honest review. It was my joy to provide one as this book will be pulled off my shelves time and time again.

Today I am joining … Unite and #RaRaLInkup and TrekkingThru the Week and Teaching What Is Good  .