I am half way through this book and am finding it very profitable. It was given to back in 1976 but I never finished reading it. I should have. It is written by Hannah W. Smith, a Quaker.
I was concerned that there might be a lot of doctrine that I might disagree with, but have only found one thing so far. It is in the chapter on the will. She says, "For God can only carry out His own will with us as we consent to it, and will in harmony with Him." I have a little trouble with this statement because it makes man sovereign over God. God can and will do whatever He wills with us regardless of whether or not we consent to it. If we do not consent to His will He may choose to leave us to our own devices to learn from the hard knocks of disobedience, but that is because He chooses to let us go our own way, not because He can not have His will with us.
Other than that, I have found much encouragement and much food for thought in this book. Her chapter on temptation is especially good. She states that the temptation to sin is not sin. Just because the thought pops into your head you are not sinning. You sin when you hold on to that thought and roll it around in your head. You sin when you act on that thought. But Satan wants to discourage you right out the starting gate by making you think you are responsible for the temptation that pops into you mind when he really is the author of it. If he can make you think you are a terrible person for having that temptation pop into your mind then he has won half the battle right there.
I would encourage anyone to pick up this book and read it. You will have much to gain by it.
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