A Review of Dr. Bruce Hartman's "Your Faith Has Made You Well"

By Bryan Preston:

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” So said Thomas Aquinas, and Christians have wrestled with what it means to have faith before and since. More famously, Paul wrote to the Hebrews that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” He might have added “yet.” The late Billy Graham compared faith to understanding that while we can’t see the wind, we know it’s there because we can feel it and see its effects on the leaves on trees around. Even Psychology Today highlights the importance of having faith.

Yet faith can be difficult. We all know someone who has experienced life’s tragedies. A friend of mine nearly lost his leg to medical malpractice when he was 19 years old. Another passed away suddenly leaving a young family behind, while by all evidence he was living a life devoted to his faith in Christ. Bad things happen to good people every day, we have all either seen or experienced injustice or disasters ourselves. Innocence is often no defense against cancer or cutthroats. Making sense of these experiences tries our souls and challenges our faith. Yet our faith, according to Jesus, has the power to heal the body and mind.

The words of Christ

Eight times in the Gospels Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well.” Jesus meant everything he said, and when he said the same thing multiple times, it was for a purpose. Jesus’ repeated use of this phrase raises its meaning and its importance to our faith. He repeated himself when he really wanted to get our attention. Repetition becomes a statement that can’t be ignored - a statement by Jesus that acts of healing require our participation and involvement in our healing.

Depicting a different way of looking at miracles that change and restore lives, in Your Faith Has Made You Well, Dr. Bruce L Hartman takes on the challenge of exploring this new and vital concept of our involvement with Jesus in our healing. It also explores the times when the miracle doesn’t arrive.

Book shelves and whole book stores are full of books about our faith lives, but this book is unique in that it explores our own involvement with God in establishing a relationship that leads to wholeness. A way that is both simple and real.

The Author

Dr. Hartman is a former chief financial officer of Fortune 500 companies. He brings this success in leadership in business, combined with his study of the Gospels, to bear in Your Faith Has Made You Well. The book not only explores the importance of faith, but how to develop a strong faith. He accomplishes this through practical explanations of the importance of a strong prayer life, the value and relevance of the Bible and a well-crafted explanation and understanding of Jesus’ value in our lives. Added on to this, Dr. Hartman provides real-life examples of faith heroes and their stories. Heroes that are real and touchable. This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Bible, in fact: that its heroes are as human as and can be as awful as we are – yet God chose to use them.

Hartman’s deeply researched book is simple and complete, leaving the reader informed and empowered. The book’s connection of Jesus’ actual words with modern stories is a novel approach that drives the reader throughout its pages.

The Book

Now, you may be thinking that this sounds like a name-it-and-claim-it book. It’s not at all. Hartman makes one thing very clear: Healing faith is not about getting into trouble and then trying to pray your way out of it. It’s about having a lifelong prayer connection and relationship with Christ and it’s about what prayer from us means to God. It deals directly with tragedy, through Job’s story, in its final chapter.

Dr. Hartman clearly illuminates the story of the woman who suffered from bleeding disease for twelve years, exploring how the woman’s faith in Jesus healed her. A faith that led her to bravely as she moved through a large crowd to get close enough to Jesus and touch his cloak. With this touch of faith, she becomes healed and Jesus says to her, “Your faith has made you well.” Why did He say that? Because it was true.

Or the story of a modern hero whose prayers of faith help save her friend’s life. Not just by praying, but with a strong faith that helps bring miracles.

This is the path Your Faith Has Made You Well takes its readers on. It mixes the stories of the Gospel with modern day faith heroes, who changed their lives by grasping the evidence of things hoped for and believing in the unseen.

The book isn’t a prescriptive book, but one that informs and encourages the reader to think about their faith lives and how to improve their own faith in any circumstance.

Your Faith Has Made You Well is an encouraging book, well-suited for use as a Bible Study or book club or a neighborhood small group study, using step-by-step explanations of faith. Each of the twelve chapters explores a different aspect of faith to be discovered and discussed with fellow believers.

The book is a new and fresh take on the importance of faith without being dogmatic or commanding - or promising riches if you just believe.

Faith is a powerful thing. It can move mountains. It can calm storms. And it can make you well. Jesus said so. Your Faith Has Made You Well, from Post Hill Press, gets at the details.