Max Lucado's 'Glory Days' Revitalizes Stagnant Believers in Their Faith Walk
Prolific author and pastor Max Lucado has released a book meant to help guide Christians who might be feeling stagnant in their walk of faith. Titled Glory Days: Living Your Promised Land Life Now, the book centers on helping to address this faith crisis within American churches.
Out of 1,000 churches only 11 percent of Christians feel driven by their faith, Lucado wrote in the opening chapter, according to a survey by REVEAL Research.
During an interview with The Christian Post, Lucado said that such studies prompted him to write Glory Days.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"They stated that about 89 percent of Christians don't feel like they're moving forward in their faith. So I wanted to address that, and as a pastor that concerns me," said Lucado.
"I thought that a great way to approach that would be by studying the book of Joshua, because in a literal sense they came out of the dry lands and into the Promised Land."
Lucado explained that there are three stages of spiritual life for a human being that parallel the journey of the Hebrews in the Old Testament.
First is living enslaved in Egypt, which symbolizes not being a Christian; second is going about the wilderness after leaving Egypt, which symbolizes being a Christian but not having fully applied one's faith to everyday life; finally, there is entering the Promised Land, which symbolizes not only professing Jesus but also having a strong sense of faith.
"Nearly nine out of 10 believers, in other words, languish in the wilderness. Saved? Yes. Empowered? No," wrote Lucado in Chapter one. They waste away in the worst of ways — in the Land of In-Between. Out of Egypt but not yet in Canaan.
Each chapter of Glory Days is centered on a passage of Joshua and how a Christian can apply the themes of that passage to their everyday life.
For example, Chapter four is titled "It's Okay if You're Not Okay," and centers on how Jericho resident Rahab, though a harlot, helped the Hebrews take the city.
"Maybe your past is a checkered one. Maybe your peers don't share your faith. Maybe your pedigree is one of violence, your ancestry one of rebellion. If so, then Rahab is your model," wrote Lucado.
"We don't drop scarlet cords from our windows. But we trust the crimson thread of Christ's blood. We don't prepare for the coming of the Hebrews, but we do live with an eye toward the second coming of our Joshua — Jesus Christ."
When asked by CP as to why so few churchgoing Christians felt moved by their faith, Lucado speculated that "the big missing concept among many Christians is they don't quite understand what happened to them when they gave their hearts to Christ."
"When we give our heart to Jesus, He returns the favor and He takes up residence inside of us and places the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us," continued Lucado.
"I continually have that conversation with people, urging them to dig in, to tap in to what God has already placed within them. That's the theme of Joshua. Joshua lived out of his inheritance, not his circumstance, and that's, I think, the invitation for us."
While Glory Days is mostly focused on the individual, Lucado explained to CP that he hopes the book's advice will be applied at the group level.
"I hope that we can, because Joshua didn't move into the Promised Land by himself. And so there was a whole nation of people that moved in," said Lucado.
"And that's a desire that's in all of us — that a whole generation of people could enjoy a more fruitful, a more faith-filled experience in their Christian walk."
