Dwell, by Anne Le Tissier

'A good and helpful book encouraging readers to dwell consciously and without hurry in God’s Word'

Dwell - inviting God’s Word to make a home in our lives, one verse at a time
By Anne Le Tissier
Authentic
ISBN: 978-1-78893-272-1
Reviewed by Jeannie Kendall 

Dwell is a difficult book to review. Not because it is not a good or helpful book – it is both. But its purpose is to be read, slowly and reflectively, over the course of a year. The author wants to encourage us, as the title suggests, to dwell consciously and without hurry in God’s Word.

So as not to keep The Baptist Times team waiting a year, I looked at one week, and briefly through the rest. Hopefully that will give you enough of an idea to whet your appetite. What the author does is to take either one or two verses of scripture, and encourage us to live with the verse/s for a whole week.

On the first day, she writes little, encouraging us to reflect on what the scripture might have for us. On the other days there are sometimes links to other passages, sometimes questions on which to ponder, but always with an encouragement to ‘dwell’ with the verse throughout each day, to let it really take root in us.

Over the 52 weeks there are verses from Old and New Testament, with the flexibility to use the book in the order it is written, or to choose a verse which is particularly relevant to us at the time.

She envisages that the book is to be used alongside longer bible reading, but also recognises that at different seasons, it may on its own be what we can realistically manage.

It is beautifully bound and printed, which for me at least is important in a devotional book. I am looking forward to dwelling more fully in it, and recommend it as something you might like to consider too.
 

Jeannie Kendall is a ‘retired’ Baptist minister, speaker, trainer and a current co-leader on the Pastoral Supervision course run by Spurgeon’s College. She is the author of four books: the fourth of which, on Psalm 23, should be out next year, and is working on a fifth.