Stretching Your Faith: Practicing Postures of Prayer to Create Peace, Balance and Freedom

by Michelle Thielen

Are you able to hear God’s still small voice among the chaos of today’s loud world? Because you were created to hear from your Creator. Have you ever experienced such intimate and distraction-free worship? You were created for worship. When was the last time you completely surrendered your all? Are you ready to deepen your walk with Christ, hear from Him and have hidden mysteries, treasures and wonders revealed to you? He is trying to communicate to His children. He has things He needs you to hear and know. You have places to go, things to do and people to meet! Maybe you are ready to encounter God for the very first time, or long for a fresh encounter with the Living Waters? Would you like to get healthy and whole once and for all? Are you willing to be transformed from the inside out? Awesome! I was hoping you would say yes! I want to share how your life can be truly transformed by the Living Christ and the amazing gift of yoga. Do not be afraid of the word yoga, it simply means to be united, or to yoke. It is not our business how others use yoga or what they set their hearts and minds to while practicing yoga. Here, we set our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ and nobody should be able to judge how others worship. I believe God created everything in the Heavens and on the Earth. Therefore, I believe God created our body, how we move and physical activity that includes stretching our body. The combination of your faith, and literally stretching your faith, can heal your body, your mind, your spirit, marriage, relationships, business, ministry and so much more. You can be made whole by practicing the principles throughout these pages. Every area of your life can be healed, redeemed, restored and made new! I began my yoga journey about 20 years ago as a means to prevent injury while professionally dancing. Throughout my dance career, yoga not only helped me to maintain my flexibility and strength with no injury, I soon discovered that it was a physical activity like no other. When I attended yoga classes, often an instructor would incorporate a philosophy such as self enlighten­ment or tell students to honor “the source” within us. I would always think, “Yes the Source is within me, it is Christ alone, not me, but Him!” God always whispered to me to keep my heart and mind on Him. My yoga practice began to be Christ centered, but in a silent way. I longed to share what He was working in my heart, body and spirit with others. My prayer is that God would speak to you in new and mighty ways throughout the pages of Stretching of Your Faith and that you would connect with Him in the most profound and intimate way. Here is to your new beginnings. Your "Chapter Change". Your whole worship; body, mind, spirit and especially your soul. For in him we live, and move, and have our being. Acts 17:28

Genres: Nonfiction

930 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 23, 2016

Reviews

[Shannon Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Healing

I recommend this book for anyone who struggles with anxiety and a broken heart! Be healed and restored by God!

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great book, very comprehensive and helpful and encouraging. It looks at the 8 limbs of yoga as they relate to the Bible and also the energy ideas and chakras as they relate to scriptures, which I found really interesting and useful. There are great photos of postures/ asanas,as well as many suggestions for modifications and extensions, so really something for all people whether beginner or expert. However, what I really loved were the suggestions for meditations for each pose and what we might inhale and exhale in a particular posture/ asana as well as scriptures to meditate on. I loved how the book's narrative was woven into the different asana families, which made it easier to read through the posture information without it being the whole of the rest of the book, hopefully that makes sense! Most yoga books have the narrative at the beginning and then a section at the end with all the postures. However this book has the chapters interwoven through the book, which I think works really well, as well as narrative around the postures, not just a long list of postures and how to do them.

There's so much more I could say, but I do feel if you buy this book as a Christian interested in yoga, you will love it. I have made so many notes and I have lots of ideas to implement coming away from the book. I super loved this book. I felt it worked well on the kindle. I did use my iPad to look at some of the photos, but you can enlarge them on the kindle itself and see them perfectly well. It is well formatted. Thank you Michelle for a great book.

[Leiloni Schulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book beautifully describes how to worship our Lord and Jesus as you move through yoga postures. The descriptions are great, and the modifications make these postures available to everyone and anyone.

[Joy]

P+

[Sandy L Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good read

I am a Christian who teaches what i call a Christian Yoga class. She had the same idea and took it much further than i do. An excellent read.

[Renae Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great illustrations to help learn correct forms. Love that my yoga practice is now Jesus focused!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect all-around book for a Christian who practices yoga! Goes through postures, prayer, meditation, and chakra theory from a Christ-centered perspective... I love all the connections of truth between yoga, the Bible, and our faith!