A Life Defined

CHAPTER 3

This morning in our weekly staff meeting Karen shared an overview of chapter 3 in Hannah Whitall Smith's book "The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life." The conversation with Karen, Nick and myself (Oh! And Nick's 3 year old daughter, Ayla!) was such an uplifting part of the beginning of my week. I encourage you—if you received the book—to reach out to another from KBC to talk about what you are reading each week. Below is what Karen shared this morning to get our conversation going: 

In this chapter Whitall Smith declares the chief characteristics of a life “hid with Christ in God” are “an entire surrender to the Lord, and a perfect trust in Him, resulting in victory over sin and inward rest for the soul.” This surrender “causes us to let the Lord carry our burdens and manage our affairs for is instead of trying to do it ourselves.” She identifies these burdens as being temporal and spiritual in nature. 

Our greatest burden is ourselves—our feelings, temperaments, inner and outward experiences. Thus we must hand ourselves over to God and leave it all there.  We must surrender ourselves to him completely and trust that he can work in us and make us into who he would have us be for His purposes.

We are then called upon to lay all the other burdens at his feet as well—your health, your reputation, your family etc. Again we are called upon to surrender these to God and trust that he can manage ALL of them completely.

Whitall Smith stated that it is easier for us to commit our futures to the Lord rather than our present since we recognize we have little control over our futures. Unfortuantely, “most of us have an unconfessed idea that it is a great deal to ask the Lord to carry ourselves, and that we cannot think of asking Him to carry our burdens too.” However we can trust the “Divine Burden Bearer” with ALL our cares, anxieties and circumstances. He invites us in Philippians 4:6,7 to take every care to Him and abandon ourselves in Him and the end result will be His peace and His rest. Just as a child in its parent’s house live with the freedom, carefree trust, and unquestioning confidence their needs will be provided, so too should we live as if we are “a child in the Father’s house.” In so doing our lives (and souls) will be defined by perfect peace as we trust and lean into our Father’s care.

Karen then got us sharing by asking this question:

• Do you find it easier to trust the Lord with your future or your present? And why is that? 

• What are some of your current burdens?

Nick mentioned that the advice to "Let go (of our anxiety) and Let God (take care of what is troubling us)" is easy counsel to give but difficult to receive.

• Considering your current burdens, how might you phrase the advice you need so that you experience life as "a child" filled with carefree, unquestioning freedom in your Father's house?

God's Side and Man's Side

CHAPTER TWO

Hannah Whithall Smith pulled out all the illustrative stops in her second chapter of “The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life” as she explained a foundational truth that the reader must understand in applying the teachings of this book. Our personal faith journey was explained by focusing in on the complimentary relationship needed between God who works and people who must trust that He works. Smith doubled down on how important this is by referring to the common biblical potter and clay relationship, an apple in June compared to one in October, two women with great potential who ended differently, a mother’s contentment to care for a helpless baby more so than a grown child, and finally a carpenter (God) to a hand-saw (us). She enlisted all of these illustrations because this can be a difficult concept to embrace: To advance in relationship with God, He will do all the work and we must be all about trusting Him.

Like most who are reading this blog, I have been conditioned to believe that if I want good things to happen, I need to take the initiative to make good things happen. I need to pull myself up by the proverbial bootstraps (I don’t even know what a bootstrap is). If we want to catch a worm, we need to rise early from bed. If I want grease, I had better squeak. When the going gets tough, I need to get to going along too. We’ve been conditioned to believe that we live in a cause and effect world. But this simply is not true in a personal relationship with the Father.

Mrs. Smith proposes in chapter two that the only way to advance in our relationship with God is to stop trying and start relying. This week pastor Nick shared one of his most memorable quotes from the chapter with me:

In the divine order, God's working depends upon our co-operation. Of our Lord it was declared that at a certain place He did there no mighty work because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:58.) It was not that He would not, but He could not. I believe we often think of God that He will not, when the real truth is that He cannot. Just as the potter, however skillful, cannot make a beautiful vessel out of a lump of clay that is never put into his hands, so neither can God make out of me a vessel unto His honor, unless I put myself into His hands.

I highlighted the same quote and then went back and read it more than a few times. If we aren’t able to stop trying to work our wills and surrender to the will of God, we will stall out and come up short in experiencing all that He has for us. We will never know the joy of being molded in His hands, ripened to an October apple, experiencing a perfect outcome, maturing to the stature that is found in Christ, and being the instrument God uses to accomplish feats beyond our ability or imagination.

Along with the author I encourage you to surrender all to Him; allowing Him to work in and for you.

THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS FOR INTERACTION

• What is something in your life that you have struggled to surrender to God’s control?

• Think of what He could do if you put that something into His hands to mold, ripen, perfect, mature, and accomplish amazing feats. Write down a few possibilities of how He could work.

• The Psalmist says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Another way to say that is, “God wants you to stop striving and allow Him to work in you.” Take time to be still before God. Take a half an hour to sit, to kneel, or maybe even walk with Him alone. Talk to Him about the area you’ve held onto. Tell Him you want to surrender it to Him to work on.

KBC Community Study of "The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life"

Chapter One 

A keen observer once said to me, "You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it. You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable!" p. 11

Hannah Whitall Smith makes the point from the onset that her book will be more of a study for application rather than a study for increased theological indoctrination. Her concern or motivation for writing was that many in the church of her era were experiencing a Christian life that was characterized more by defeat from sin than victory over it. 

I believe that Smith’s attempt is to encourage those who are in Christ and yet struggle with defeat, discouragement, or depression so that they can see there is a way out to victory, boldness, and joy. Be careful not to hear that “those in Christ can attain a sinless state of perfection”; she does not say that. But she is saying that if a believer is rationalizing sin’s presence in their life they are giving power to the devil to have victory over God and the ability to upend His promises. 

"Would you approve of it if I should tell you that God puts forth His power to do such a thing, but the devil hinders Him? That it is impossible for God to do it, because the devil does not like it? That it is impossible that anyone should be free from sin, because the devil hath got such a power in them that God cannot cast him out? p. 18 

The victorious life in Christ is not something we are promised for tomorrow—it is a present-day gift for followers of Christ. However, Smith proposes that many seemed to be living as if victory was unattainable in the present within the church of her generation. I believe, just as Hannah Smith believed, that this study is just as relevant for us in the church today. So, over the next 5 months, I’d like to invite the KBC faith community on a weekly journey, reading one chapter a week. I’ll send out some thoughts and questions with which we can interact. 

 Join me in this journey toward victory. 

THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS FOR INTERACTION 

• Look up and read the Scriptures that Smith mentioned in this first chapter. What do they say about the present-day experience of the believer’s victory? 

 1st John 3:1–10, Luke 1:67–79 (especially 74–75), Acts 3:17–26, Ephesians 4:17–24  

* If you want to dig deeper, the author cited more passages in the chapter.

• What are two or three sins or the roots of defeat, discouragement and/or depression in your heart? 

• What has your attitude toward these sins been? 

Passive? Aggressive? Peaceful? Resentment towards God, the church, or others? 

• According to what you’ve read, what does God's Word say specifically about your struggles and sins?