10 Great Books to Ignite Your Spiritual Growth

​Are you looking for some good summer reading to help you grow spiritually? I don't know about you, but I'm always searching for great books, particular in the summer months when I have more time and desire to read.

If you want some book recommendations, I put together a hand-picked, curated list of books just for you! Each of these books are ones I have read, and personally recommend to others. A great book can nourish our soul, and guide us into a new place in our spiritual journey.

Here are 10 great books to ignite your spiritual growth and help you know God more deeply:
​

Invitation to Solitude and Silence
By Ruth Haley Barton

I read this book over a decade ago, during a season when I was exhausted from ministry and work, and desperately needed a personal encounter with God. As I read through each chapter, it was like God's Spirit was beckoning me deeper and further into relationship with him. This book is an invitation to you to meet God deeply and fully outside the demands and noise of daily life. If you are in need of leaving the noise and hearing from God, this book is for you.

---

Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God
By Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard's beloved book offers rich insight into how we can hear God's voice clearly and develop an intimate partnership with him. If you want to build a personal relationship with God that is grounded in learning to listen closely and intimately, this book paints an inspiring vision and equips you with practical principles. I have gone back to this book again and again in my own desire to grow in listening to God.

---

The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery
By David G. Benner

Deep knowledge of God is impossible without deep knowledge of self. This book from spiritual director and psychologist David Benner is built on the foundational paradigm that self-understanding leads to the fulfillment of your God-given identity, destiny, and calling. Read this if you want to become more like Christ and more authentically yourself. 

---

---

The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction
By Adam S. McHugh

As a spiritual director, I pride myself on my ability to listen. When I read this book, however, I realized how much more I have to grow in true listening. This book is both prophetic and practical for our world filled with distraction and noise. Author Adam McHugh invites us to ask the question, "How would our lives change if we approached every experience with the intention of listening first?" This book places listening at the heart of our spirituality, our relationships, and our mission in the world.

---

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
By Richard Rohr

For anyone who desires to mature in life, move into deeper territory with God, and make sense of the faith journey, this book provides deep insight. Richard Rohr writes with a gentle, open style, yet compels readers into profound, paradigm-shifting understanding. He talks about the deeper purposes of the two halves of life, and offers reflections on how spiritual maturity occurs. 

---

Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You
By John Ortberg

I am so grateful for how this book talks about the soul, a topic that is so crucial, yet often perceived as too mysterious to understand. John Ortberg does a great job of helping readers look at the health of our souls, how the soul can be starved or nurtured, and explore what our souls need to thrive. A relevant book for people traveling on the spiritual journey.

---

Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World
By Henri Nouwen

This is one of the most foundational books in my own faith journey. I believe that there is nothing more crucial to our wholeness than for us to experience our belovedness in the Father. It is a simple message: "You are my beloved child." When we receive this as our truest identity, we have freedom from the lies, insecurities and demands of the world. If you pick one book off this list, choose this one.

---

Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
By Richard Foster

This book by Richard Foster is hailed as a modern Christian classic for good reason. The book explores a variety of central spiritual practices of the Christian faith in a way that is approachable and practical. For people wanting to grow spiritually, it lays out a framework for practices like prayer, fasting, and simplicity, and how God uses those things to develop our spirituality and faith. I have read this several times, and with each reading have discovered more layers of wisdom.

---

Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation
By M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

What exactly is Christian spiritual formation? Author M. Robert Mulholland Jr. gives this definition: "The process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others." This book takes an in-depth look at the Christian life, and what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ. It explores the reality that we become like Christ gradually (not instantaneously), and that different personality types experience spiritual growth in unique ways.

---

What books have helped your spiritual growth? Please share in the comments.

---

Want guidance and inspiration for your spiritual journey delivered to your inbox?
​Sign up for my email newsletter Notes From Larissa.