Love Never Fails

The Reliant by Dr Patrick Johnston is a YA futuristic Christian adventure. It has an apocalyptic setting where looting, shooting and general lawlessness are the order of the day. The novel has many Christian themes and messages to relay to the reader.

There is the theme of thankfulness. “Let’s focus not on what we have lost, but on all we have to be thankful for.” Too often in life we focus on the negative when we should be thanking God for our many blessings.

The faithfulness of God is shown within the story. Throughout our lives, God walks alongside us. He often bears the brunt of our pain and anger. “Why God? Why did You let this happen?”. God never leaves us. We need to trust Him at all times and “choose to believe that God is good.”

There are the themes of grace and forgiveness. “He died for our forgiveness, not our comfort.” Forgiving others may be hard. Forgiving ourselves is often impossible. We all need forgiveness for sins both great and small. “It’s easier to give forgiveness when you realise how badly you need it.” At the cross, Jesus exchanged our sins for grace that covers us all. We need to live forgiven.

The novel shows how we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. Whatever our circumstances, fixing our eyes on Jesus will help us to do the right thing. We need a heavenly perspective at all times. Earth is not our home. We are just passing through.

Prayer is important. We are told to pray about everything and worry about nothing.

Love, kindness and having a child-like faith are vital. We should all strive to live our lives with these qualities in mind. Love speaks all languages and breaks down barriers.

Life is a spiritual battle. God and the devil are both after our souls for eternity. We need to be armed with the word of God to defeat the devil. Our eternal destination is at stake.

The Reliant was not my usual genre but was an exciting read that highlighted some important Christian lessons to be learnt.

I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON