Shadow of the Almighty

I remember reading the book Shadow of the Almighty when I was 14 years old, and it was one of the things that pushed me into missions. This time reading it through encouraged me to live fully for God and that God will do something great with the person that starts doing something and steps out in faith. The example of Jim Elliot’s life challenges me to be doing more for God’s work. 

The biggest thing that I learned from this book is to have an attitude of trusting God. 

Jim Elliot was not worried about his bank account or his material processions. He was only concerned with pleasing God. He went to an extreme sometimes with this, but everyone knew that God was number one in his life. They knew where his priority was. He would spend his extra time memorizing verses and reading his Bible. He lived his life to honor and please God. 

I think that I can also learn from the areas where it seems like Jim messed up. The biggest one of these is his lack of training.

 He always seemed to be doing something for God but did not seem to have anyone in his life to train him or direct him on what to do. He went to college but did not seem to have anyone there to mentor or teach him. He seemed to have little or no guidance in his life, and, for a while, he just went from one thing to another, trying to preach the Gospel but not seeming to have any idea of what he was doing or what his goal was. When he gets to the mission field, he tries to help people in any way possible, but it does not seem like he has any clear goal of what his ministry is or should be. 

The two big takeaways from this book are that I need to trust God more and that I need to get training and understand what I want to accomplish on the mission field. 

I don’t want to show up on the field and live a reactionary life. I don’t want to only respond to people’s needs, but I want to know what I am doing and be trained to do it. I want to start churches and train men so that we can reach the world with the Gospel. 

This blog post is part of my book review series. If you would like to read an article about the best books for missionaries to read, you can click here.