Audio book review: Be anxious for nothing by Max Lucado

So had time to listen to this short audio book written and read by Max Lucado. The title is "Be anxious for nothing" and I wanted to check it out as Lucado does have another book on happiness coming out.

But this book did not represent any refreshing new ideas. Most of it was very cliched, such as the adage: If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I'm not sure if anyone has not heard of that adage or heard the advice given in this book elsewhere in sermons or from Christian friends.

The only key take-away I got was to pray with words from the Bible such as: in Psalm 23 you promised to walk me through the valley of death. As Lucado says that God likes to hear that we do read his word and remind Him of His promises to us.

The key Bible verse in this book seems to be Philippians 4:6-7 which reads: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

However, I may be too harsh as most things we already know as Christians but from time to time we may just need some reminders. The story/analogy I liked was the graper grower sitting down to talk with his grape vines who are "whining" about how they are not able to produce grapes. The grower tells the vines that they are trying too hard, all they have to do is hang onto the branch and let the fruit grow. The analogy is to Christians who try to produce fruit of the spirit on their own will but really just need to hang onto the cross of Christ.