I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

15 Ways to Live Longer and Healthier by Joel Osteen
Published by FaithWords on October 10, 2023
Genres: Religion / Christian Living / Inspirational, Religion / Christian Living / Personal Growth, Self-Help / Motivational & Inspirational
Pages: 224
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joel Osteen shares his best wisdom on the simple choices we can make each day to live longer, happier, and healthier lives.

What if a healthy, abundant, joyful, faith-filled life is within reach? What if you could increase your energy, vitality, and happiness, and stop dragging through the day, living discouraged and depressed, and settling for less than the life you want?
 
In 15 Ways to Live Longer and Healthier, New York Times bestselling author Joel Osteen, with his trademark wisdom and encouragement, helps you to discover greater success, stronger relationships, tame stress, and find real happiness. He shows that the key to good health, longevity, and abundance is to keep your soul healthy by focusing on your attitude, your thoughts, and your emotional well-being. In this book, he shows you how to:

• Stay positive toward yourself;
• Deal with difficult people;
• Let go of control;
• Choose to be happy;
• Unclutter your mind;
• Live in the present;
• Tame the tongue; and
• Take care of yourself.

 
Start today to make a real change that lasts. Not just for a week, a month, or a year but for the rest of your life.
 

A study guide and a Spanish edition, 15 maneras de vivir más tiempo y más saludable, are also available for purchase.

I’ve long been a fan of Joel Osteen’s books. I realize that many people consider him to be a “bad” pastor, saying he preaches “prosperity gospel” and whatnot. However, in my experience with his books, they generally contain sound advice. Let me say this – 15 Ways to Live Longer and Healthier is no different.

In this book, Pastor Osteen gives advice on staying positive toward yourself¹Come on now, if you can’t love yourself, you can’t love others. God created you and Jesus said to love our neighbor as ourselves.., dealing with difficult people, not relying on people, and more. Usually with this type of book, I find myself grating at some of the advice, but with this book, I was fully invested in what Pastor Osteen had to say. The advice made sense and while maybe not always easily practicable, it is possible if you give it a bit of thought.

There is one thing that bothered me, which since I was reading an uncorrected proof, I hope was fixed/different in the final version – Paster Osteen would often refer to Bible verses by saying “The Scripture says:” and then giving the wording of the verse(s). But there wouldn’t be a reference²Like John 3:16, ESV given for the scripture he was quoting. There wasn’t even a footnote to refer to later for a scriptural reference. I’m not sure about anyone else, but I don’t like to have Bible verses quoted to/at me without being given the reference so I can look it up myself, read the verses before and after it to gain context, and see for myself what the Bible says. Other than that, the book was very good, full of great advice, and I’d recommend it to anyone who doesn’t have a gripe against Joel Osteen³Honestly, if you have a gripe against him, you’re not going to enjoy the book because you’re just going to pick apart everything he says.

Due to the lack of references to the scriptures he quotes, I gave this book 4 stars. But advice-wise 15 Ways to Live Longer and Healthier is a sound book and he does use Biblical references in the book to back up what he is saying.