Navigate: How the Bible Can Help You in Every Aspect of Your Life

by Norman Vincent Peale

Contained within this beautiful volume is a way of applying faith that will help readers in all areas of their lives.

Genres: Self Help, Spirituality

144 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2013

About the author

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) was a minister and author (most notably of The Power of Positive Thinking) and a progenitor of the theory of "positive thinking".

Peale was born in Bowersville, Ohio. He graduated from Bellefontaine High School, Bellefontaine, Ohio. He has earned degrees at Ohio Wesleyan University (where he became a brother of the Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta) and Boston University School of Theology.

Raised as a Methodist and ordained as a Methodist minister in 1922, Peale changed his religious affiliation to the Reformed Church in America in 1932 and began a 52-year tenure as pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. During that time the church's membership grew from 600 to over 5000, and he became one of New York City's most famous preachers.

Reviews

[Katherynne Boham]

A few of the stories in this book have already appeared in others but, even so, this is an excellent read. The stories are presented in such a way that I look at them from a different angle and learn something new. Well worth the time it took to read this.

[Christopher Lewis Kozoriz]

"...if you are handicapped in your mind, it is worse than being handicapped in your body." (Norman Vincent Peale, Navigate: How the Bible Can Help You in Every Aspect of Your Life, Page 121)

How can the Bible help you in every aspect of your life? It can help you by renewing your mind and you start to think how God thinks and sees things. One of the strategies to use when going through difficulties is to start to think of a scripture that relates to what you are going through. For example, if things are not going right in your life you can mediate on the scripture from Romans 8:28: "...all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Or if you are going through worry you can mediate on the scripture from Matthew 6:25-34: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about the body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

The Bible can help you through many difficulties, trials, troubles and tribulations. Contemporary psychology may reject the Bible as a means to overcome mental health issues, but I have news for you, it is one of the greatest books to help you to get your mind right. The word of God will make your mind whole.

This book is tool to use to help you to apply the Word of God to your every day problems. There is power in the Word of God to help you overcome all your difficulties.

[Nadine A.]

I kept receiving excerpts from this book in emails from Guideposts and finally decided to order the book to read on my kindle. I am glad I did. It is very inspirational and full of wise advice. I believe many of the chapters are from sermons that he preached. He writes about dealing with Despair, Grace, Anxiety, Temptation, Disappointment, etc. all of the issues that we face in our lives. He writes with compassion, humor, and obvious insight into the human spirit often using the stories of real people that he has ministered to who were facing these common issues. His advice is clear and withstands the test of time. For example in the chapter on Criticism he writes "Never answer a critic, keep your spirit right. Learn all you can from your critic; honestly analyze and correct yourself where necessary. Thank him for his input but do not let him cut you down in action or in spirit."

[Aaron]

very inspiring!

[Gloria Maria Vazquez]

Love Peale's wisdom!

[Daniel]

Peale presents various verses almost as a good luck charm for situations, but the truth of having the scriptures in your head when you need them for encouragement is entirely valid.

[Rupertt Wind]

"The best thing to do id to get healed of negatives in life, become filled with faith" hence goes the words by Dr Peale as it appears n the introduction of the book and that exactly is the purpose and vision of the book. He seeks to replace the negativities in life with a positive outlook through the medium of prayer and faith. Dr Peale was a minister by occupation and this has aided him in bearing witness to the many sufferings there is and as he himself states that the sheer volume if published as a book could be consider as the account of all human suffering. This very aspect of his occupation has also helped him witness many miracles and has shown him what the human spirit can achieve ones it is determined to so so. This book is a guide to help realize that potential.


That being said one of the greatest back-draws that I experienced when reading the book was also culminating from the fact Dr Peale was a minister and that his proximity to his religion and its intricacies. The book is full of references to Bible, anecdotes, events and stories from the Bible and the christian religious world view. Now I don't mean to say that the book is a christian doctrine, but any person totally unaware or illiterate of the christian world view would find it hard to comprehend and fully appreciate the wisdom of Dr Peale.



Peale at length talks about the importance of faith and the power and potential of the human spirits and all the chapters in the book is directed towards discovering that potential and that faith. He asks for unflinching faith and he preaches of the enormous life altering strength that is dormant in every one of us. he seeks to liberate that strength by means of prayer and faith. He believes and with the aid of several examples from his life and the ones he touched emphasizes on to the reader this belief of his.


The whole essence of the book can be found in the phrase "Be filled with love and faith" and he prophesies that all your vows will be gone once that is achieved. The book is an excellent guide to any one who finds himself in a doldrum and seeks to escape that impasse. Once you are willing to look deep into the elements of christianity in this book and seek out its meaning and why he choses to use it, this becomes and excellent guide but even without that all you have to do look beyond them and the book will serve its purpose, and will help navigate you through your life.

as it appears in my blog Pages off Life

[Margaret D'Anieri]

I read this as part of a book study group. It helped me see how easy it can be to get sucked into the individualistic "God is on my side if just pull myself up by my bootstraps" distortion of Christianity; its not much of a leap from Peale to Joel Osteen and such. No place for Christian community or agnosticism in this book, and a superficial approach to suffering. So, good exposure but that's it.

[Alex Vasai]

Keeps your mind on the good, Christian, path which is what I liked about it. The title suggested methods to integrate Bible teachings in our life but it contains few scripts from the Bible combined with inspiring stories. I consider it a shorter version of ”The power of positive thinking”.

[h kiai]

Spiritually enlightening.

[Lus]

O carte structurată mai degrabă ca o serie de eseuri decât o carte unitară. Sunt idei disparate despre frici, dezamăgire, nefericire, oboseală, credință, un alt rețetar de 'How to' din seria bestseller-urilor americane.
Consider că are idei demne de a fi analizate și argumentate însă are un mod superficial de a trata fiecare subiect și cu o puternică influență religioasă. Accentul cade pe el, (Norman Peale) care colindă lumea și vorbește la evenimente. Majoritatea exemplelor sunt adunate din experiențele altor oameni pe care i-a întâlnit de-a lungul timpului. Nu sunt cazuri concise, detaliate, și unele par inventate, după părerea mea, doar pentru a exemplifica o idee, a crea o morală.
De asemenea, în argumentare folosește termeni și noțiuni din psihologie într-un mod inexact, fără să cunoască în profunzime acest domeniu, poate încearcă să dea o mai mare credibilitate cărții sale.

În concluzie, mie mi s-a părut o carte moralizatoare, cu influență creștină, cu idei general valabile și de bun simț dar fără profunzime sau vreun element de originalitate.

[Serge Larose]

A shorter read compared to other books from NVP. At times it felt like material from his other books were added to this book. It's fun to read about his interactions with others and dialogues. At times I wonder how he could have so many stories to tell. Then I imagined that he was an easily approachable gentlemen with an active listening skill. He wasn't afraid to speak with others, even if it meant he had to listen to their negativity because NVP knew how to coach and guide them to positivity.
I find NVP books quite consistent and this one is no different.

[Nancy]

Tried and true advice

Tried and true advice in the form of real life stories the author has experienced or heard about first hand. Great reading organized by topic. Read individual chapters as needed or read in order as a daily reading.

[SethGyan]

Lots of stories that shows a greater America that navigated their lives through Christ.
Book offers general spiritual self help advice concerning many areas of the human experience and existence.

[Marty]

Useful and helpful read- will be useful for daily steps.

[Susan Welch]

Excellent book! Norman Vincent Peale is never a let down.

[Paul]

"În ultimă analiză, lucrul care aduce putere în ființa umană este ceva despre care predicatorii vorbesc de la începuturile istoriei Creștinismului, adică de la convertire. Asta înseamnă că individul devine conștient de greșelile sale, de slabiciunile sale, de înfrângerea sa, realizând că nu are nicio putere de la sine pentru a se schimba și, singur, se dedică lui Isus Hristos, întru totul și din toată inima."

[Stela Radu]

E interesanta pt cei care sunt religiosi, cred in Dumnezeu. Daca esti ateu - nu recomand. Autorul face referire la anumite versete din Biblie , le incadreaza in viata de zi cu zi. Se citeste usor si e motivanta cartea 😇