Jesus Always - Sarah Young

This book of 365 devotionals is “written from the perspective of Jesus speaking to you,” and it is written in Jesus’ voice--first person--rather than third person as we are used to reading. I found this unnerving and not something with which I became more comfortable the more I read. At times, I had a hard time imagining some of these words coming out of Jesus’ mouth on any occasion, such as (from July 17), “I am infinitely more brilliant than the greatest genius imaginable.” That just isn’t the Jesus I know, and it exemplifies what I found distasteful about the writing: there were often what I consider to be overstatements, as God doesn’t talk that way about Himself. He is gentleman enough to allow us to come to those conclusions, such as when He asked Job the “where were you?” questions that made Job face his limitations without being bashed on the head with God’s immensity. Many of the devotionals seemed repetitive, aimed at themes of comfort, trust, and righteousness, and the tone of the book is reassuring and encouraging; almost never does it exhort or correct. The author includes three or four verses with each devotional, but often they are quite unrelated and can feel jarring in their juxtaposition. Perhaps if listening to Jesus’ voice is a new skill, this book might be helpful, but to one who has listened to Jesus for many decades, I actually found it limiting as the readings often felt stilted. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.