More Than a Battle

I went into More Than a Battle with somewhat low expectations due to the astonishing amount of completely useless information concerning this topic on the Internet. No online resource covering this topic ever covered it to the breadth and depth of what it truly needed to be. I'd never actually consulted a book, though, on this topic.

In short, I was legitimately blown away by this book. It is like breathing fresh air after being stuck somewhere with terrible ventilation. Dr. Rigney gets to the bottom of the fact that lust is a symptom of other sin rooted deep inside someone's heart. He promotes an approach that is truly holistic, covering all the practical bases but also the foundational spiritual truths as well.

There is clearly a great deal of practical application history that Rigney has backing his words. There are nuanced points in here that one would never think to talk about unless they have actually experienced or counseled anyone on it. For example, he addresses the pain of a sensitive conscience that feels a need to confess every detail in order to feel clean. This is a point I've not seen in any book related to guilt or forgiveness, so it was a moment of unique joy to see such an issue addressed!

On that note, worth mentioning is the fact that Rigney does not promote the terribly harmful viewpoint that men are predisposed to lust and have to avert their eyes to prevent the automatic sin that will occur if they see anything remotely sexual. He is one of few voices that I hear promoting this important truth. Drawing a distinction between temptation and sin is extremely important and it is a central point of one of the chapters of this book. Temptation and intrusive thoughts are often (if not always) one and the same. It is a liberating truth for all, but especially for men.

The book was also saturated with Scripture that was expounded and applied very well. This is definitely staying on the bookshelf.