If You Only Knew: My Unlikely, Unavoidable Story of Becoming Free

If You Only Knew: My Unlikely, Unavoidable Story of Becoming Free

What if you knew all the moments of my past that I am not proud of? What if you really knew me, the messy parts that I’ve hoped to forget and worked hard to conceal? For so long, my greatest fear was what you might think of me if you only knew the whole story.

It’s exhausting, this guarding of our stories and struggles. Fear of being found out had caused me to hide—but I wasn’t just covering my flaws, I was unintentionally blocking the beauty of God’s grace. My journey to real freedom began when I quit running from my mess and started trusting Jesus to make something beautiful of it.

This book is that story. It’s stepping out of shame and insecurity into gospel freedom. It’s  letting God turn our failures and frailties into testimonies of His faithfulness. I’ve discovered that when we quit hiding, God gets the glory and we are able to fully embrace not only our relationship with Him, but also with one another.

Transparency brings freedom, and in every moment, we'll find that God can absolutely be trusted.

 Jamie shares vulnerably about her life experiences in a way that makes her feel like a trusted friend.  In the very beginning she says, "I don't know about you, but I talk to enough women today to know that this is a place where many of us are living. Trapped in our past. Hidden deep inside our secrets. Defeated by our struggles. The sum total of our depressing parts. Pretending, not empowered. Fake, not free." She gives her readers the courage to share their own story. Jamie shares how the power of the gospel can heal all the broken parts of our past, robbing them of the shame, guilt and fear.

Here is another quote from the book that really got me…”He is more concerned with drawing our hearts toward Him, not getting us put together enough so that we’re capable of coming to Him. The reason He wants us acknowledging and repenting of our sins is so that we can follow Him, not so He can confirm why He’s rejecting us. “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. (John 3:17)” 

I highly recommend this book. It was a quick and interesting read.

Jamie Ivey believes we are all on this journey of life together and we need each other to get to the end. Through her podcast, The Happy Hour with Jamie Ivey, and blog, she takes a raw and intimate approach to her speaking and writing. Jamie's prayer and hope is for God to use her words to encourage and show others that they are not alone, while constantly pointing them to Jesus. She is mother to four kids and wife to Aaron. Jamie loves reading, date nights, Mexican food, and traveling the world with her family.

B&H Publishing provided me a copy of this book in exchange for this review, but all opinions are completely my own