Enemies of the Heart: Breaking Free from the Four Emotions That Control You

Definitely delves into the many aspects of the spiritual heart.

Andy is a great communicator and gives good every day examples of how to apply the Bible in your daily life.

I liked the book overallIt just starts off a little slow

Good book for my womens small group

While I was going through Andy Stanley’s book, my mind was flooding with the Bible scriptures:“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)Grace is God’s unmerited, unearned, and undeserved favor. Grace is God’s forgiveness, love, goodness, endless blessings and favors unto us. Grace is Jesus Christ and His Finished Work on the cross. No matter what emotional challenges we are facing, including guilt, unforgiveness, anger, jealousy, greed and so on, it is the power of God unto our salvation (Romans 1:16), saving us from all our struggles and challenges in every single area of our lives.When we embrace God’s grace, beholding Jesus Christ and His Finished Work, we are transforming to His image from Glory to Glory by the spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18), not by our self-efforts.As we learn and meditate on the Scriptures, we put our trust and faith on our Lord Jesus Christ and believe that our Lord Jesus is our new identity and our true self. We live by faith and walk in the spirit in believing what we have in Christ and who we are in Christ. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)By God’s grace, our emotional struggling will gradually lose its power and it will be replace by the fruit of the spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)Coming from an abusive family with emotional, mental, physical, and sexual abuses for more than ten years, I had suffered from PTSD and anxiety for most of my adult life. I have been struggling with multiple psychological and emotional issues, including excessive guilt, unforgiveness, anger, and other forms of mental challenges. It has been a long journey for me to discover, learn, and enjoy God’s grace. However, it is by the grace of God alone, I have been on my way to a complete recovery. Sometimes, I feel a great sense of joy and peace within that is totally beyond my reasoning and understanding.When we walk in the spirit, meditating, confessing and believing that ”The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Ps 23:1), “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.” (Ps 34:10), “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19), do you think the word of God has power to help us to overcome our jealousy?When we face the issue of anger or other emotional challenges, do we confess and believe that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit ” (Romans 8:1) and we are still the righteousness of God in Christ or do we focus on ourselves and our improper emotions and then beat ourselves up? Could we overcome our emotional issues by our flesh?We forgive others because God has forgiven all our sins by sacrificing His only begotten son. We forgive others because we are so saturated with God’s love and forgiveness and we forgive others by faith, not by feelings. By doing so, our past hurting will be gradually diminishing, and it is getting easier and easier to let go of our unforgiveness.Guilt is the result of we believe and place ourselves under the law and walk in the flesh. I have experienced a great freedom from my guilt by God’s amazing grace. When we walk in the spirit, it is becoming an easier task to apologize to other if it is a necessity…..I would love to share more, connect with anyone who have a similar mind-set and grow together in the Lord.

Other than the Bible, this is the most important book I have ever read! I am 76 and have been a serious disciple of Jesus Christ for 50 years. Andy Stanley has done a stellar job of communicating key principles of living the Christian life. And he has done it with a wise and engaging style that makes reading it a pleasure as it shows you how to change your life. Charlie Wilson

Let's just say that once you understand the root of your emotions, you can make the CHOICE (despite of how much you are used to feeling those emotions) to limit them and not let them cripple you ever again! Thank you, Mr. Stanley for such a beautiful and simple way of helping me break free of (in my case) anger. 🙏🏼

Lol, this book goes right to the heart ❤️

Sehr gut gegliedert und anschaulich sowie kurzweilig erklärt. Auch in englischer Sprache gut verständlich. Essentielle Lebenswahrheiten, sollte jeder gelesen haben und umsetzen.

Another great read and details well.

This book was easy to read. Andy Stanley not only described the Enemies of the Heart; in the second half of the book, he tells how to overcome them.

A must read.....getting to the root of all our emotional baggage. Easy to read, to the point and oh, so powerful and life changing if you actually choose to do the work. Everyone should read this and if you are in leadership, you need to set an example. It's time to take responsibility for ourselves and see the true potential of what we can be. Love this book.

Great book! Really forced me to look inside myself.