A Review of "For These Tough Times" by Max Lucado

I have high respect for Max Lucado, and I sincerely believe he is a very intelligent, accomplished writer. But I must be honest and say that I’ve found his Bible Study books to come off as a sort of "Bible According to Max." I’ve also been left wanting from several of his devotional books which seemed to me to be hastily thrown together or overly pithy.

This devotional is the best of Lucado’s work that I’ve read. The first several chapters and the final two are quite good; inspiring and personal without sappiness. However, the fourth chapter, entitled “Good Triumphant” is highly troublesome (particularly for an Arminian!) Lucado tells us that Satan is an instrument in God’s hand, and that all the evil done to us by Satan is simply God doing it to us by this particular tool. So, my dear friend who was sexually abused by her father when she was 10 gets to know that God was quite involved in all of it. Sorry…not the character of God I see.

Lucado is trying to tell us that God works good IN everything when Romans says he works good OUT of everything. Satan is his own tool, but his authority and the pain/suffering he inflicts never goes beyond what God can redeem. Max, buddy, there really is a difference between “cause” and “allow,” but you are using the terms synonymously!

For that reason, I cannot recommend this book to those for whom it is written – those who are dealing with “unspeakable tragedies.”