Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him – Amy Gannett

Fix Your Eyes Amy Gannett
Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him by Amy Gannett
Also by this author: Does God Sleep?: A Book About God’s Power, Does God Go on Vacation?: A Book About God’s Presence, Did God Learn His ABCs?: A Book About God’s Knowledge
Published by B&H Publishing on October 5, 2021
Genres: Non-Fiction, Christian Life, Theology
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four-stars

We live in a polarized time. Christians are quick to conceive of themselves either as theologically-minded or worship-minded; either thinking Christians or feeling Christians. The results are damaging: theology without worship is muted, stifled, and cold, and worship without theology is ungrounded, unrooted, and uninformed.   This is not the way it was meant to be.   Theology (our study and knowledge of God) should always lead to doxology (our worship of Him). Worship should always be rooted in theology. When we study the nature and character of God as revealed in his Word, we are invited to respond in the affectionate, obedient discipleship of worship. How can we keep our theology from being mere head knowledge? How do we give our worship roots that will last? By fixing our eyes on God Himself—the object of our study and the object of our worship.  Fix Your Eyes​ is an invitation to understand core doctrines of the Christian faith and apply them in our daily worship of God. It walks believers through key theological concepts and shows how each can be lived out in daily life.  

Amy Gannett writes in an approachable, conversational style throughout this book, sharing insights into God, the Bible, and Christian theology. This book is great for new believers or Christians who want to learn more about what they believe, and the non-academic writing style keeps this book accessible to teenagers and adults regardless of their backgrounds with theology or interest in intellectual study. Gannett emphasizes the value of Christians knowing the truth about God and living it out in worship, and includes both theological explanation and practical applications in every chapter.

Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him covers a variety of different key topics, such as the nature of God, the Trinity, salvation, the church, and the end times. In all of this, Gannett focuses on what the Bible teaches without getting into specific denominational views or theories. For the most part, nothing in this book was new to me, since I am already well-read on theological topics, but I appreciated her conversational style and choice to avoid unnecessary controversy. I also appreciated her sensitivity when writing about the importance of the local church. She acknowledges from her own experience how difficult life in the local church can be, and writes about a time in her life when she experienced deep church hurt and had to overcome baggage to engage with a new congregation.

In all of this, Gannnet upholds scriptural teaching while also acknowledging the realities of our broken world, and the ways that people and institutions do not live up to God’s design. Fix Your Eyes can help and encourage readers by reminding them of the ideal that we should strive for while also acknowledging their hurt and suffering, and the book’s sensitive tone will make it especially appealing to people who have found books about theology off-putting in the past for various personal reasons. I would recommend this book to new believers, to Christians who want to study more about theology, and to theologically minded Christians like me who would appreciated Gannett’s unique approach.

four-stars