I have not read anything by this author before. He pastors a church in Colorado and travels in the ministry. Most of his writings seem to be on the subject of prayer and revival. This particular little book is based upon the sickness of the heart that comes from hope deferred. When hopes are unfulfilled or shattered Proverbs 13v 12 tells us that the heart becomes sick. There are seven chapters, written in an interesting and personal style with plenty of anecdotes, quotes and illustrations drawn from various people. Things that occurred in the lives of people as diverse as Susannah Wesley to Thomas Edison pad out the general purpose of the book. Sometimes the author takes a little excursion into the Greek or Hebrew languages to draw out the meaning of certain words used in the texts and stories and these are interesting and helpful in elucidating his thoughts on his subject. His intention is to bring home the fact that the remedy to the sadness that comes of unfulfilled expectations and longings is to draw near to God and let Him renew the heart and it to the position of faith. I am not fully sure that this aspect comes through in the book as clearly as it could but to be fair, the book is not meant to be a theological one, but a short, readable book of encouragement. Dutch Sheet’s desire is to encourage those that have become shut down by the failure of many things. They can be set free from the inability to face the future. I always get the feeling with these kinds of books that they never quite go far enough, that they do not fully engage with their subject matter because of the slight tendency to appeal to a more general church readership. There are good things here though and the Lord is well able to speak to us all somewhat through these chapters.
