I am a small group Bible study leader for women and this Autumn semester, I have had 7 commited ladies reading this non-fiction Joyce Meyer book. I've been to a Joyce Meyer conference and enjoyed it. She's a dynamic, humorous and down to earth speaker full of zeal for the Redeemer.
I've received positive feedback regarding this study. I too have enjoyed this book and have learned a lot about what it really means...and why it's important...to live out loud the two greatest commandments Jesus left us with: to love the Lord our God with all our souls, hearts, and minds and to love our neighbor (anyone who is different from us) as our selves.
BOOK SUMMARY
Joyce includes in this book some practical ways to love difficult people. She gives us Biblical wisdom based on Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. She shares her own personal experiences about how a Believer can love difficult people or people we just can't seem to get along with.
She tells us that we all have difficult people in our lives: work colleagues who are unfriendly, neighbors who are nosy or just plain rude, extended family members or even your own children or an ex-spouse, fellow church members who have different preferences or convictions from us and anyone on social media.
She shares the ways we can become peacemakers in disagreeable circumstances and how to become a person who is not easily offended. She teaches us how to know when to adapt ourselves to other people and when and how to set boundaries. Basically: how to love as Jesus loves....even it seems impossible to do so.
She says with God's help we can turn difficult interactions into pleasant ones and bring peace that puts out fires of strife when arguments rise up.
When we learn to really love the way Jesus does, we will be free to love people who are hard to love!
The book is divided into 4 main parts which includes 3-8 chapters in each. There is an introduction and a conclusion. At the end of the book she includes Scriptures to help us forgive and find freedom from offense.
The book also has a study guide which was optional for the ladies to purchase to join my group. I used to the study guide and gathered some of the discussion points from that guide to aid our discussion of the book each week.
Part One: Love Changes Everything
- The Greatest Thing in all the World
- Loving People who are hard to Love
- The Character of Love
Part Two: Love and Peace in Relationships
- Becoming a Peacemaker
- The Danger of Anger
- Disagree Agreeably
- Avoiding Strife
- Love is not easily offended
- What if your opinion?
- Are you Angry with yourself?
- Let it Go!
Part Three: the Power of Love and Acceptance
- Can't You be more like Me?
- Please Accept Me!
- Adapt and Adjust yourself to Other People
- We are all Created Equal in God's Eyes
Part Four: God's Love Triumphs Over All
- It's Just Too Hard!
- For the Love of God
- What in the World is going on?
- Love Wins
The end of the book includes Scriptures to help you forgive and find freedom from offense.
Each chapter also includes various Scriptures to go with the title of the chapter/theme of the chapter. She also includes quotes from famous Christians.
The Study Guide is like "homework" with some fill-in-the-blank statements and more Scripture to look up and add to the discussion. Each chapter includes a Personal Challenge and a Love Challenge (something practical to do to show love to others). Just one other woman and I bought the study guide and we enjoyed doing the questions along with the book but I based our discussion on the main points of the chapter and had the women share their own thoughts or Scriptures on each chapter.
MY THOUGHTS
First, let me just say that I have read other non-fiction study books by Joyce and I have to say this is my absolute favorite. I also thought it was very timely considering this was an election year. We established early on in the semester that we would not talk about politics as first of all I am a firm believer that a church small group is not the platform for that due to separation of church and state. However, I also knew that although most of us Believing women were moderate to left, two are far right or conservative so I wanted to be respectful of both sides. Everyone agreed this would be just a discussion of the book and its contents.
I challenged the women each week with extra Scriptures and we all took turns being assigned one to read and explain. This really added to our discussion as I wanted it to be Scripture based like the book.
I have received very positive feedback from each woman. Out of the 7 women who signed up to be in the group, only 2 are personal friends of mine who have been in previous groups I've led. One woman whom I just met in September has told me " this is the best Bible study I have ever been in" and she's been in them via our church for over 15 years. I was flattered and said It's all God!" We have all learned so much about how to deal with difficult people and what it means to really love them like Jesus.
The book itself is easy to read and the chapters are short so because we wanted to fit it into just the Autumn semester, we decided as a group, after a vote, to read 2 chapters a week/discuss two a week, and then take a Holiday Season break (week of Thanksgiving through the first Tuesday of January). We will finish up the last 4 chapters in January.
I have finished the book, as the leader, so wanted to share this book review.
If you have never read this book or used it to lead a small group, I highly recommend it.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
1 comment:
Thanks for the early review, Faith. I'm going to suggest this for our next study which will begin in the new year.
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