Hello ladies! I can’t believe this study is already coming close to an end. I do love this book and I hope you all have enjoyed it as well! This is my second time reading this book and I am learning even more this second time around.
My name is Megan Hildabrand. I was born and raised in Louisville, which is how I met Hannah and got involved with this online book club, but I go to a small school called Georgetown College in a small town called Georgetown, Ky. I am 21 years old and in my senior year. I am currently studying abroad in Florence, Italy for the semester and I am experiencing all kinds of new, wonderful things! I am a math major and art history minor. I will admit that I love math and I hope to teach high school math someday to help others love it too.
I grew up in church my whole life, but didn’t really surrender my life to God until I was a junior in high school. It took me 9 years after I prayed the prayer of salvation when I was 7 to really understand what the gospel was and how it should affect my life. Now I am just trying to grow in my faith and do everything for the glory of God by reminding myself of the gospel every day.
Discussion Questions:1. In Chapter 32, Elisabeth Elliot writes about an internal conflict: “the good I want to do fighting the evil I don’t want to do and the desire that seems to be so good in itself verses the deeper desire to love my master above all others.” Do you struggle with this conflict at all? Elisabeth goes on to write that the only way to deal with this struggle is to ask God for help. She uses these lines from a hymn, “Ask the Savior to help you, comfort, strengthen, and keep you; He is willing to aid you – He will carry you through.” I know sometimes I like to fix and deal with things on my own and do not turn to God first to help me through, but like Elisabeth says, you have to want to be helped by God for it to happen. Is there anything holding you back from letting God “carry you through”? If not, what helps you to fully rely on him to “carry you through”?
2. Chapter 35 is about impatience, hence the title. I think, most of the time, the reason behind my moments of impatience when it comes to the things of life is a result of not trusting in the sovereignty of God. God has His own timing. We are often not ready to surrender ourselves over to “God’s hands, ‘in the sublime keeping of the general and unspecific belief that God is answering our prayers in His own time and way.’”(p. 154) Do you ever find yourself getting impatient with God? If so, what are some truths from the Bible that we can reflect on to help us get rid of our impatience and trust in Him? What are some things that you may have become impatient about that you need to trust in God’s timing for?
3. I love this quote from one of Jim’s letters to Elisabeth in Chapter 37: “What is, is actual – what might be simply is not, and I must not therefore query God as though he robbed me – of things that are not. Further, the things that are belong to us, and they are good, God given, and enriched. Let not our longing slay the appetite of our living.”(p.160) I think it pretty much speaks for itself. Do you have any bitterness towards God because of things you think “might be” but have not come yet or might not ever come? Would you be content in Christ if some things you desire to happen do not actually happen? Are you able to focus on the blessings God has given you over these things that “might be”?
