Book Review: Beloved By Francis Chan

It seems that much of my reading list comes from hearing interviews with various authors on podcasts. Once again, I heard about today’s book on some podcasts and added it to the top of my reading list. I was intrigued by the title, Beloved. From hearing about the book to seeing the way the title was written on the cover, it seemed like it was a play on the word “Beloved” that we see used so much in the Bible, especially by John, and also the idea that the word can be split in two so that Beloved becomes Be loved.

This really is a key part of this book by Francis Chan. We are God’s beloved and we need to let Him love us. We need to be loved. Chan puts it this way in the book: “Many of us are terrible at receiving, but that needs to change. We are God’s beloved children, and He wants us to be able to simply be loved. Not striving, just believing and enjoying and resting in His perfect love.”

While this receiving of God’s love sounds simple enough, at our core I think most of us would agree that sometimes it’s far easier said than done. In the book Chan also calls out the reality that for many “It is far easier for you to declare your love for Jesus than to boast in His love for you.” This is a sad, but too often true statement that many of us struggle with.

This book was written to convey just how much God loves us and wants us to dwell in that love and relationship with Him. The book is a fairly short read, but includes numerous challenges to stop and meditate or reflect on God’s love for us and how we are loved by Him. It also discusses some of the things that can be distractions and challenges as we seek to abide in that love. Identifying the things that prevent us from fulling enjoying His love for us enables us to deal with those struggles as we realize and experience God’s love in our lives more and more.

As he describes his goals for the book, Francis Chan says:

“I want to help you see that God’s greatest desire isn’t your service or sacrifice—it’s your heart. He wants you to know beyond any shadow of doubt, that you are deeply, completely, eternally loved. And from that place of security—of being loved—will flow the kind of obedience that doesn’t exhaust you but exhilarates you. The kind of service that doesn’t drain you but delights you. The kind of sacrifice that feels less like duty and more like privilege.”

Isn’t that something that we all want. If you’re like me and find yourself dealing with some of the things described there at times: insecurity, exhaustion, being drained, feeling like you are serving out of duty or requirement, then I encourage you to grab a copy of this book and check it out.

Francis Chan is a gifted writer and communicator and has a great way of wording things to get to the heart of the matter. Throughout the book, I found challenging statements and questions that made me stop and think. One of those was this question:

“When’s the last time you truly believed, deep in your bones that God was smiling at you—not because you did something impressive, but simply because you’re His?”

Throughout Scripture we see that God wants our hearts. Our words and actions are important, but ultimately it’s the heart that matters. A heart that is fully surrendered not just to love and obey Him, but surrendered to accepting His wonderful, amazing, undeserved, and unearned love personally. If you ever struggle to fully embrace being loved by God just because you’re His, then this is well worth the read.

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