Maria Furlough writes in a friendly tone as she shares her story and encourages readers to take action to confront their fears. As I read through this book, I made a list of helpful scriptures and steps I can take to deal with fear and pray through it. I now have an action plan and am grateful for tools that help me live more confidently. I would recommend this book to any believer who struggles with fear, wants to overcome it and needs a fresh perspective on the peace God gives.

When you sit down to read Maria Furlough’s book, be prepared to work your highlighter. You’ll be amazed at the volume of words you mark to revisit. Maria writes about breaking the fear cycle and kindly gives us a roadmap to finding peace. Fear clamps down like a vice grip on our hearts and minds. When left unchecked, it effects our well-being and influences how we interact with our family and the world. Maria shares with us, “Fear will come...But it is our choice how much dominion we are going to allow fear to have over our lives.”

Maria is the mother of five children (four here on earth and one in heaven). She and her family lost an infant son nearly immediately after his birth. God’s promises of protection and peace came alive with new meaning and sustained her during this time. Her heartfelt words tell a life-changing story that offer hope.

When we are consumed by fear, too often our conversations with God are fear-filled pleas. Maria shows us how to replace fear-filled pleas with faith-filled prayers. She touches a nerve when she writes, “Our fears highlight and illuminate the areas we honestly do not believe God’s power can touch.” Essentially Maria reminds us that often our fears are directly linked to how big we truly believe God is. If we have a small sized view of God, and feel there are certain areas that God can’t have control over, then fear will remain. She encourages us to gain confidence and break free of fear and anxiety by surrendering these fears to God. This is an important book for our times. Readers would be wise to choose it as a personal devotional or to read in a small group study. I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Breaking the Fear Cycle" looks at the core lies that we believe that create fear and how to use the truth to break the cycle of fear. The author told parts of her story to illustrate through her experiences the points that she's making. She learned months before her due date that her baby would die at birth. She also had a chapter of testimonies from people about how they broke the cycle of fear (following advice found in this book).

She started by having you name your fears and realize that you have a choice in how you deal with them. She mainly talked about fear of what might happen, and one of her steps is to recognize what really is true about that moment versus the scenarios that you have come up with about what could happen or could have happened. She looked at what the Bible says about suffering and has you focus on God, His promises, and prayer. I have read several books about dealing with fear, and this is the only one I would highly recommend to anyone. It leaves you feeling free.