Also by this author: Ours: Biblical Comfort for Men Grieving Miscarriage
Published by Crossway Books on October 6, 2020
Genres: Non-Fiction, Devotional
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New from popular author and speaker Paul David Tripp, this series of short devotionals encourages Christians to experience the life-giving message of the gospel every day. Each book contains 40 daily readings curated from the best-selling devotional New Morning Mercies and is focused on a particular theme essential to the Christian life. Short enough to read in 5 minutes or less, each meditation will encourage readers to treasure the life-changing truths of God's word more fully.
There is nothing anyone can do to earn God's favor--it is his gift of grace. In this addition to the series, Tripp explores the role grace plays in a Christian's everyday life. Through 40 daily meditations, Tripp reminds readers that God, in his infinite mercy, can radically transform even the weakest people by the life-changing power of his grace.
New Morning Mercies has been a Paul David Tripp classic since it was first published in 2014. In his inimitable style, Tripp leads readers in short, easily-digested devotionals that are meant simply to refocus readers on the Gospel by confronting and comforting them with the truths of Scripture. This devotional actually came out of a daily habit of Tripp’s, which was posting three tweet-length (140 characters at the time) meditations per day. That concept expanded into a year-long daily devotional and now, six year later, Crossway has taken eighty of those devotions and split them into two books called Forty Days of Grace and Forty Days of Faith.
These devotionals are very simply, four to six paragraph readings. They aren’t substantive in the sense that you’re meant to learn anything from them (though you might!) or that they’re study materials or that they should be the bulk of your devotional life. The best descriptor I have is that these devotions are a breather. Just five minutes. You wake up, go about your morning routine, sit down with a cup of coffee, and breather. You put the kids to bed and before you turn to cleaning up the house, breather. You walk away from your screen at work for a few minutes, breather.
The concept worked especially good in the context of Twitter—not known for being the uplifting of experiences in a politicized age. Doom-scroll, doom-scroll, doom-scroll, but then you’re hit with a re-orienting word from Paul David Tripp. The books don’t quite have that power because they are more of a directed choice. You are be surprised by what scrolls by on your Twitter timeline. Picking up a book requires directed action. As such, the expectations are a little bit different. The devotions still work. They’re still truthful. But they may not enough for those hungry enough to actively seek after such devotional teaching.
Each devotional begins with a sentence that captures the heart of the devotional’s theme. It ends with a suggested Scripture reading for further enjoyment and encouragement. Tripp doesn’t confine himself to any certain structure. Some devotions quote a paragraph of Scripture; others just a line. A few are primarily organized as lists and others written as poetry. It keeps the reader from getting into a rut and knowing what to expect and how to expect it. (I suspect it helped Tripp with the writing process as well!) The devotionals really do read like they are one Christian leader’s devotional diary entries. Forty Days of Grace and Forty Days of Faith is like sitting down with a friend and asking them “So what has God been teaching you lately?” And without any hesitation, Paul David Tripp is there to tell you exactly that.