Whatever Happens: How to Stand Firm in Your Faith When the World is Falling Apart

Uncertainty in our world today leaves many people, including believers, feeling lost, exhausted, and in chaos. In his newest book, Pastor Robert Morgan encourages readers to stand firm in their faith even while the world seems like it’s falling apart. Believers can live as citizens of heaven amid a crooked and warped generation because we are able to do all things through Christ who gives us strength. People can trust God and live with courage on an ever-changing globe because God is still in charge and he still meets our needs.

Morgan invites readers of this text to see themselves as equals to the people who belonged to the ancient church at Philippi when Paul wrote the book of Philippians. Every chapter in the book uses the text of Philippians as a backdrop to the practical principles and guiding themes Morgan strives to present. The author wants readers to actively pursue being unruffled while the world comes unraveled. He gives page after page of noteworthy and nuanced guidance about living as a Christian in perplexing circumstances. He talks about thankfulness, prayerfulness, cheerfulness, and generosity. He talks about service, justification, Christification, and glorification. He talks realistically about becoming like Jesus and giving ourselves grace as we grow up. Believers do not have to be “people of doom and gloom” as we trust the Holy Spirit to continue working on us and in us to help us complete the salvation Christ has won and begun for us.

This book is formatted in such a way that it could be used either as a personal devotional or as a reference commentary. The language is more pedestrian than scholarly in its address; the ideas were first presented in a series of sermons produced for Morgan’s self-titled podcast. The book of Philippians is well-known to many people in Christian circles; nevertheless, this book is applicable and relevant to readers who might be looking for help and hope in a world that is undeniably broken, not bright.

Unlike other books Morgan has written in the past two decades, this text is probably not suitable for group Bible study or discussion. The material and chapters are useful, but the book as a whole is lengthy and detailed. This is a book the adult reader could read in short increments over a period of time, several days or weeks. Morgan is a down-to-earth thinker who grasps after pragmatic applications within the scope of daily Christian life. He desires readers to enjoy the same things he is aiming for in his own journey and experiences. (W Publishing)