Fears. Faults. Failures. Frailties. Every woman at some point wonders, Do I have to get past all my weaknesses before God can use me? Wendy Pope is happy to tell readers: No! You don’t have to overcome, correct, rise above, or get strong before you are qualified to be part of God’s plan. He can use you right now. You are a worthwhile possibility. In Hidden Potential, readers see that they …
In Hidden Potential, readers see that they can be:
- faithful, even in fear
- included in God’s plans, even in weaknesses
- worth something, even in failure
- valuable, even in pain
Pope explores the life of a fearful murderer on the run with a speech problem and daddy issues–also known as Moses–to show readers God’s power and grace. As she writes, God will never count anyone out as long as they count themselves as His children.
Hidden Potential includes discussion, reflection, and Bible study questions, challenges to take readers further in their faith, and real-life stories from other women to remind readers they are not alone.
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I loved this book and I adore Wendy Pope. She spoke at a women’s retreat I went to. She’s an amazing speaker. I first read some of her writing on First5, which I love! I’ve bought a couple of Wendy’s books and love them all. This book spoke to my heart. I love when books point our hearts to the heart of God and tune our characters to be more like Jesus. This is one of those.
I was disappointed with this book because of its negativity and lack of practicality.
The subtitle is “Revealing What God Can Do through You,” but it didn’t. It really focused on four negatives that we think get in the way of realizing our full potential for God. These four F’s – think of them like big, red marks from your teacher on the top of the page of your life – are failures, fears, frailties, and faults. The author uses Moses as her main example for all of these. However, she used one event in Moses’ life to represent both his failure and his fault.
I don’t feel like she really ever led us to anything we could do, other than just change our mindset. Of course, when you view life through the filter of determinism, there’s not much that we’re responsible for. Yes, our weaknesses and sins can be used by God, but they weren’t all given by Him. Some are. But others are not. We need to take responsibility for those and let God redeem the rest while working to show the results of our salvation in our transformation more and more into the image of the Son (Philippians 2:12-13; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
I did like the questions and journal space right at the end of each chapter.
And I loved the Personality Profiles, written by four other women, at the end of each F chapter.
While there was much I disagreed with, I did find some favorite quotes I do agree with:
“He can transform weakness to power, regret to purpose, and anxiety to peace.” (p. 22)
“The joy of life is knowing Him and getting to know Him better and better.” (p.33)
“Our failure is not more powerful than our God… He is more than capable of taking what we messed up, turning it upside down, twisting it sideways, and making it work for our good and His ultimate glory.” (p. 65) – the definition of redemption
“Failure is a great teacher; we just have to be willing to learn the lessons.” (p. 68)
“The wrong fear is prone to creep in when we shift our focus away from God and onto our abilities, strengths, and qualifications. When our gaze is fixed on the assignment, rather than on the One who assigns, we are likely to fear and possibly bolt.” (p. 103)
“It’s so easy to look at our circumstances—lack of education, limited resources, low esteem, or lessened physical abilities—and wonder, Am I valuable even though I feel damaged?” (p. 117)
“If we don’t properly deal with our frailties, they can become such a huge part of who we are that freedom apart from them is frightening. Our frailties can even become comfortable to us… Freedom is oh-so-wonderful, but it is also very scary.” (p. 134)
“God provided every job to give me the tools I would need on the journey He was taking me on to bring glory to Himself.” (p. 144, Meg)
“He’s famous for taking the old and making it new. He longs to do new in you.” (p.186)
(I received this book for free from the Proverbs31 as a small group leader. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own, as was my decision to write a review.)