Patricia Ann Rowe Mitola’s Religion or Relationship? is comprised largely of her personal accounts of times when God intervened to affect a positive outcome for her. Or, as she puts it, “times when the Lord showed up.” Her focus is on living life to its fullest by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The author’s examples of these divine interventions include everything from how God led her to not wear lipstick to deliverance from physical threats to financial provision, physical healings, and much more. For example, Mitola notes that one time she was prompted by God to take a sign language course. Over a year later, she was assigned to work with a non-verbal autistic teenager and was successful in teaching him to sign. She credits God for leading her to this perfect solution for her student.
Mitola includes scriptural resources at book’s end for deeper investigation into spiritual warfare, Holy Spirit presence, relationship to God, and how to have an effective daily devotional time.
The author’s heartfelt writing comes across as sincere and indicative of her decades of living her faith—not as a religion, but as a relationship with God. “Believing all the facts and other knowledge [about God] does not change you any more than knowing everything about a car and how it works makes you a car,” she writes. “You must…be willing to let Him [be] in charge of your life for His purposes.”
Unfortunately, the book is hampered by copyediting issues, including typos, omitted words, and awkward grammar (“When we understand who He is and desires for Him to be in control, then He will continue to live in us by His Holy Spirit and use our lives for whatever purpose He made us accomplish”). Also, Mitola’s ideas lack the freshness some may be seeking
Nonetheless, Religion of Relationship? should appeal to readers seeking evidence for the existence of a personal God who intervenes in the everyday lives of believers.
Also available as an ebook.
