About the Book

Book: When Only Faith Remains

Author: Amy C. OReilly

Genre: Christian Living/Personal Growth

Release Date: May 6, 2019

Hidden just beneath the surface of Mary’s unique calling to serve as the mother of Christ lies an equally captivating story of her journey of faith.

Sometimes when our plans are derailed or we encounter struggles, our faith is the only thing we have to draw upon. Trusting God through those hard times is the bedrock of what will keep us grounded. But what happens when fear creeps in? Perhaps that’s what it was like for the virgin Mary when Gabriel came to her with news that she was highly favored and chosen to bear the Christ child.

Drawing parallels from her own journey-of-faith life experiences and the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Amy C. O’Reilly offers encouragement and inspiration to readers who seek to strengthen and move forward from fear to faith just as Mary did.

With Luke 2 and 1 Corinthians 13 as reference points, readers will connect their faith in ways that bind them to love and hope in the person of Jesus Christ. While your circumstance may differ from Mary’s, the similar deepening of faith through heartache and suffering and hope and triumph will inspire you in your identity, calling, and destiny in Christ.

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About the Author

Amy C. O’Reilly has a master’s in physical therapy and co-owns Sandhills Orthotics and Prosthetics with her husband. Amy serves as a leader and teacher at her local church and Community Bible Study, and she desires to expand God’s kingdom through writing and speaking at churches and women’s groups. She enjoys running, teaching, and spending time with family at the beach. Amy and her family live in the Sandhills of North Carolina. When Only Faith Remains is her first book.

More from Amy

When Only Faith Remains is the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as she appears in Scripture and her unique journey of faith. The writing of this book was a journey in and of itself as God revealed many spiritual parallels in my own life events and faith journey. As I followed Mary to the cross and beyond, she became more real and relevant to me than ever before and I began to find connection and hope in my own life during the times when only faith remains.

Mary’s story is truly every believers story as Jesus calls us all to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. As I pondered Mary’s life and treasured the words she treasured, I knew it was time to take Mary and Joseph out of the boundaries of the nativity box, and help their story come alive in a way modern readers can identify and relate.

Mary’s story is heartrending, yet beautiful, and crushing, yet full of hope, and it’s replete with anticipation, insecurity, fears, doubts, grief, hope and love. Her story is one of mystery and intrigue. It is also sobering with a heavy dose of the realities involved in following Christ. And hidden just beneath the surface of Mary’s unique calling to serve as the mother of Christ lies an equally captivating story of her journey of faith. From the first time she says yes to Jesus in the presence of an angel to the day she is filled once again with the Spirit of her risen Savior at Pentecost, we witness a frightened Jewish girl transformed into a woman who overcomes the worst grief imaginable—all by faith.

As I dug past the details and circumstances of Mary’s life to unearth her core needs, fears, and desires, I found myself identifying with Mary more and more. I discovered God at work in each detail of her life and in every relationship, teaching her His ways and deepening her faith, just as He has done in my life. In Philippians 2:12, Mary is the perfect example of a believer who “works out her salvation with fear and trembling,” as God teaches her to trust His plan through the life and death of her very own Son. Thus Mary’s journey of faith becomes one in which all roads lead her back to Jesus, the Christ, the Lord and Savior of all.

Readers can expect to relate to Mary in surprising ways as they navigate through their own seasons of hardship, heartache, grief, and loss. I have also shared some of my own struggles and heartache with a transparency that is both genuine and encouraging to believers searching for an authentic faith.

I invite you to join me on this journey as I share my own life experiences in light of Mary’s journey as found in Scripture. My hope is that Mary becomes real and relevant to you in a very personal way throughout the pages of this book. My prayer is that, as you find yourself and your own journey of faith in the story of Mary, your faith in Jesus Christ will be renewed and strengthened.

My Review

“Mary’s story is that of every mother and every woman who is brave enough to say yes to Christ and yes to the life He wills for her.”

When I began reading “When Only Faith Remains”, I did not know what to expect. Classified under Christian living and personal growth, I hoped that it would not prove to be dry or simply a recitation of facts. Sometimes, as much as I hate to say it, Christian nonfiction can be hit or miss. It can be marketed to a general audience but written for a seminarian. So I was absolutely delighted to find that Amy O’Reilly’s book (and her first one, at that) is not at all boring or incomprehensible for the layman.

As a matter of fact, “When Only Faith Remains” reaches out to the reader regardless of denomination or affiliation. I love that! Far too often we fail to look past the trivialities over which we quibble rather than focusing on that most important element of our faith: Jesus Himself. O’Reilly does a wonderful job of using Scripture to hone in on the life and particularly the unwavering faith of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Also laudable is her method, which does not seek to create a possible narrative for Mary’s life and thoughts but instead uses the information given in the Gospels, coupled with cultural history and her own maternal wisdom to offer a study of this strong woman of faith. While Mary’s story is familiar, “When Only Faith Remains” calls attention to the interweaving of Scripture from both the Gospels and the Old Testament, as well as how events in Jesus’s and Mary’s lives foreshadowed what was to come at Calvary.

This short book can be used as a devotional, with each chapter ending with a prayer and seeking to strengthen the reader’s faith journey. I also consider it part Bible study because of the author’s skillful examination of Scripture and how she uses Scripture to illuminate Scripture. Her own life and maternal experiences are poignant examples of how we can manifest faith like Mary amid life’s inevitable vicissitudes because “Faith uncontaminated by the world is believing that Hope and Love is a Person, not a feeling.” Furthermore, while Mary and her faith journey are the subject of this book, they never overshadow the Savior.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through CelebrateLit and was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are my own.