Week 10: Part Four — Reasoning and Intellectualism (Chapters 17–18)

1.Meyer warns against an over-reliance on human reasoning — the habit of needing to figure everything out before obeying God. She says the mind that must understand before it will obey will rarely obey at all. Does this resonate with you? Can you think of a time when your need to understand delayed your obedience?

2.Proverbs 3:5 says, 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.' Meyer insists this means that our reason must be submitted to God's Word, not the other way around. What areas of your life do you find hardest to trust God without needing full understanding first?

3.She describes a 'religious spirit' as one that uses theological knowledge to avoid genuine personal transformation. Have you ever used spiritual language or biblical knowledge as a way of keeping God at arm's length rather than letting Him change you?