Hustling God: Why We Work So Hard for What God Wants to Give - Hardcover

Barnes, M. Craig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031021954X ISBN 13: 9780310219545

Publisher: Zondervan, 1999

Synopsis

We work hard at life. We try to get better jobs, better homes, better relationships, and even a better spirituality. We are like Jacob in the Old Testament. His name means "striver, schemer, supplanter, hustler." He could have been the poster boy for the American Dream.But author Craig Barnes says this is not the way we should be living our lives. We should not try to manipulate and hustle ourselves into a place of advantage with God, a position that has been ours all along. After all, God is the one who climbed down the ladder to be with us. Using true anecdotes from the men, women, and families of the churches he has served, Barnes invites hard-running, stressed-out, burned-out people to stop striving. Life is not something we grasp and clutch to us, but a gift God freely gives. Only when we open our hands can God fill them with the blessings he has been waiting to lavish upon us all along.

About this title

From the Back Cover

We work so hard at life. Most of us spend year after year trying to get better jobs, better homes, better relationships, even a better spirituality. Yet every day we face the haunting doubt that we haven't done enough.

Jacob would have understood. His name means "striver, schemer, supplanter, hustler." And as Craig Barnes reveals, he could have been the poster boy for the American Dream-because like most of us, the ancient patriarch spent most of his life trying to grab what he could only receive as a gift from God.

The story of Jacob is our story as well. In our fast-paced, rat-race culture, our efforts and formulas for success will never bring the satisfaction we crave. In Hustling God, Craig Barnes invites hard-running, stressed-out, burned-out people to simply stop. Stop running-long enough to realize we're lost. Stop-and encounter the God who has climbed down the ladder from heaven to earth to find us. Stop-so we can at last receive all the blessing that, in Jesus Christ, God was dying to give us.

Only when we empty our hands of our attempts to grasp at life can God fill them with the blessing he's been waiting to lavish upon us all along.

Edition details

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031021954X
• ISBN 13: 9780310219545
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208