Book Review: Recapturing The Wonder by Mike Cosper

Kids have a great imagination. It is easy for them to think of a world of make believe and even believe what mom and dad says is true. When it comes to spiritual matters, kids have a easier time embracing spiritual things. You can tell them the story of Noah's Ark and they are captivated by it. If you tell adults that same story, you get a million questions, some of which, you cannot answer.

As adults, we, at times, have a hard with spiritual things. We see the miracles in the Bible and how God worked in the world, yet we look at the world and wonder why can't that happen now. We all face times where we lose our wonder of God especially when life hits us in the face.

Mike Cosper gives us encouragement as we seek to gaze upon the beauty of God and stand in awe of him, in his latest book, Recapturing The Wonder. Cosper begins to help us discover where our disenchantment is. Where did we lose focus on the God of the universe where we can come to him with child-like faith. This is not about some feeling of being loved by God, but where has our wonder like a child gone.

Have we let prayer, fasting, and even Bible reading become more of a duty than a delight? Cosper says that while those things are important, they are can lead to an empty religious life if there is no communion with God. Prayer is the saints speaking to the Father. Fasting is giving something up to focus on the Lord. Bible reading is how God speaks to us. Are we letting those things become lifeless?

The point of Cosper's book is not trying to have a Christian out of body experience or to get us to work harder to become better, but to help those who have lost their wonder. Jesus said whoever is humbled like a child is greatest in the kingdom. Christian are called children of God because God has adopted them in the family because of Christ's finished work. God is our Father. We should delight to come to Him like a child should be able to go to his/her father. A child who loves his/her father delights to be with him. That is what Cosper wants to encourage his readers to do.

Thanks InterVarsity Press for letting me review this book.