A Sudden Glory: God’s Lavish Response to Your Ache for Something More
by Sharon Jaynes

Fix breakfast for your kids.  Wash the dishes.  Supervise teeth brushing, comb hair, plant kisses.  Buy groceries.  Pay bills.  Drive to work, drive home.  Cook dinner.  Do Bible study.  Answer emails.  Pray and go to bed.

The daily drag of life can sometimes weigh us down. More than that, it can blind us to God’s glory.  That’s what Sharon Jaynes is writing about in this book–the reminder to be alert for God, to press in to Him and long for His presence.

Even when we’re doing everything right, we can still miss out on the intimacy and elaborate grace God intends for us.  We long for something more; maybe it’s a need we can’t even identify, but we still we feel it.  So we DO what we are supposed to do.  Yet, she writes: “Rather than ask God what he wants from us, we need to ask Him what He wants for us” ( pg.9).

Sharon Jaynes has written a beautiful, inspiring, challenging, encouraging and very real book, perfect for the individual to read and for a group setting (study guide included).  She shares out of her own personal pain, the times she was angry at God and the times when His plans weren’t her own.  This openness makes her writing even more compelling because life doesn’t always go how any of us expect.  Most of us have been there, crying, disappointed, upset with God, desperately hurting, and we need the testimony of someone who’s walked through that and seen God glorified.

I’ve so often heard messages on this topic that remain frustratingly simplistic and superficial.  They go something like this:  We long for something more.  We know Jesus better.  We feel better.  Amen.

Even those of us walking with Jesus so closely, though, will still feel a longing for more, a sense of incompleteness.  Sometimes pastors and teachers ignore that, giving pat answers, cliched lessons, and leaving us all unsatisfied as to why we’re still longing when we’ve done everything they’ve said.

The fact is that as long as we are on this side of heaven, we will never be truly filled.  The closer we walk with God, the more satisfied we will be, but the more we will be reminded of the beauty of heaven when nothing will cloud our vision, when nothing remains hidden or unanswered.  When we see Jesus face to face, that’s when our deepest longings will truly be satisfied.  Sharon Jaynes avoids all of the pitfalls of over-simplification here and gives us the hope of heaven.

But she also gives us hope for the meantime while we wait here in this earthly place.  We live in obedience, in worship, in gratitude, in communion with our God and He draws us close, giving us glimpses of heaven—glimpses of His glory.  That’s how He responds to our ache for something more and it’s glorious.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”