The Chosen devotional by Amanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, and Dallas Jenkins

The Chosen devotional

Whether or not you’ve watched the on-line series, readers will still find this devotional insightful and valuable.

Let’s begin with the summary:

Encounter Jesus the way his followers did.

Every follower of Jesus in the Gospels had a not-so-great ''before.'' A brash fisherman. A pious religious leader. A demon-possessed woman. A thieving tax collector. Christ's love saw beyond their brokenness and forgave. Jesus revolutionized the lives of those who followed Him.

And He's still doing it today.

Each of the forty devotions in The Chosen contains a Scripture, a unique look into a Gospel story, suggestions for prayer, and questions that lead you further in your relationship with Christ. See Jesus through the eyes of those who knew him best, and explore the backstories of people like Mary Magdalene, Peter, Matthew, Nicodemus, and more.

It's hard to relate to the sinless Son of God, but we can all identify with the sinners. You too can be transformed: Jesus sees past your ''before'' to the person He is creating you to be.

And now, my review:

I generally don’t review non-fiction, but I was grateful to receive this ARC (advanced reader copy). These authors take turns writing on different topics, using a Scripture for their base text. (Common for devotionals.) They share their insights with interesting writing voices. A lot of times with devos, the writer or publisher will include a prayer for readers to pray. That always seems controlling and presumptive. But with The Chosen devotional, the authors include possible prayer topics. That honors readers who can then consider the list of topics and approach God in their own words. I much prefer this method.

The authors use mostly gender inclusive language, which was ideal for a devotional about Jesus, considering how He treated women in the first century, not to mention how He relates with us today. I appreciated this choice so that no reader needs to feel left out.

I read this over weeks rather than the forty days the title alludes to. Readers won’t have to feel they need to finish it in forty days. These devotionals are “meaty” and readers may want to contemplate what they’ve read for more than a day before moving to the next one.

Overall, I highly recommend this devotional. Very well done.