The Journey by Billy Graham

First published: Nashville, Tenn.: W Publishing Group, 2006

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Subgenre(s): Handbook for living

Core issue(s): Daily living; discipleship; faith; guidance; life; salvation

Overview

Billy Graham’s Christian journey began when he was a teenager. Since then, the evangelist and author has traveled around the world encouraging others to follow Christianity. Here, he uses Scripture and experiences from his own life to describe how individuals can successfully traverse the paths of life. According to Graham, birth marks the beginning of an individual’s journey, a journey initiated by God. All events between birth and death, no matter how small, are part of God’s plan for the individual’s happiness and sense of purpose. The journey is filled with both happy and difficult times, but God will support travelers who listen, obey, and put their complete faith and trust in him. Even if individuals have traveled the wrong path for most of their lives, God urges them to choose a new path, an often unpopular path that eventually leads to eternal life with him.

Graham states that there are several requirements for enduring the journey: spiritual maturity, discipleship, and effectual prayer. Spiritual maturity comes through faith, and faith increases when one spends time reading and reflecting on the infallible word of God. Discipleship requires both commitment and discipline. A disciple is one who learns from God’s still voice and from his words as recorded in the Bible. A disciple also follows and serves despite encountering numerous disappointments and hardships, for the disciple understands that spiritual conflict, the battle between good and evil, exists in our world. Christians can garner strength during difficult times by getting closer to God through prayer and meditation and through fellowship and worship with other Christians. Prayer allows Christians to express their needs as well as their thanks and praise to God and to confess wrongdoings. Grahams’s guidelines for learning to pray are “have the right attitude, seek God’s will in your prayers, bring everything to God in prayer, learn to pray at all times, and in all situations, trust God for the outcome, and learn to listen.”

The Holy Spirit speaks to Christians through prayer, convicts them of their sins, gives them new birth, and helps them become more like Christ. To Graham, one becomes like Christ when “Christ becomes Lord of our character . . . , Lord of our actions . . . , and Lord of our attitudes.” The Holy Spirit can help Christians reach these goals when Christians continuously repent their sins, completely surrender their lives to God, and trust and obey God.

Christians are fortunate because they do not have to travel on the journey alone. Of course God and the Holy Spirit travel along with dedicated believers, but the Christians who make up God’s church also are traveling with them. Christians can offer each other great assistance and comfort throughout the journey. Graham says the Bible has two meanings of the word “church.” The church refers to a group of Christians in a particular area, and it is also a reference to all believers around the world. According to Graham, church members meet for several purposes: “to worship God, to hear God’s Word, to encourage one another, and to reach out to others with Christ’s love.” Church members can also help individuals during their weakest times during the journey.

Christians are often tempted throughout their lives. Satan uses two ways to tempt Christians: “he uses pressures from outside—from the world around us” and he “tempts us from within ourselves—from what the Bible calls ’the flesh.’” Graham maintains that there are several strategies one can use to resist temptation. These strategies include realizing when temptation occurs, resisting the desire to think about the things that are tempting, fleeing temptation, and learning more about what tempts you and avoiding it. Graham says when Christians are tempted, they should pray and ask God to show them a way out of the temptation. If Christians do succumb to temptation, Graham urges them to repent and ask for God’s restoration. Graham says, “Sin breaks our fellowship with God—but it doesn’t end our relationship.”

When Satan tempts people from within themselves, he uses a person’s thoughts and inner desires, most of which stem from the “seven deadly sins”: pride, anger, envy, impurity, gluttony, sloth, and greed. Individuals can deal with pride, envy, and greed when they confess these sins and get closer to God via prayer and reading the Bible. Satan also attacks people where they are weakest. He will even use their emotions, particularly those emotions Graham calls “emotions that destroy”: anger, bitterness, worry, and fear. Each of these sins must be confessed to God and dealt with by using heartfelt prayers and Scriptures from the Bible to help overcome them.

One of the important parts of the journey is finding and following God’s will. Graham says God has a “universal or general will” for each individual that can be found in the Bible, but he also has a “personal or individual will” for everyone. People learn God’s will for their lives by asking God to help them make decisions, reading the scriptures that fit their situations, using their own wisdom, seeking godly advice, trusting the Holy Spirit or inner voice inside, and trusting God. The journey throughout life is not always easy, but it can be rewarding when one travels in faith and love with God.

Christian Themes

The Journey is a handbook for Christians, particularly those who have only recently embarked on the journey toward eternal life. Graham says every human being begins the journey at birth and ends it at death. Between life and death there are numerous paths, or decisions, that individuals must take along the way. Individuals who choose “the narrower and less traveled path” have chosen to become a Christian. Individuals can leave the path they are on in exchange for the Christian journey whenever they like. When they do make the decision to become Christians, their lives are completely changed and enriched.

Christians do not travel alone. Instead, they have God to guide and keep them throughout life’s journey. Having God’s help and guidance, however, does not mean that the Christian journey is free of trials, temptations, sin, and disappointments. In fact, a Christian’s life might have just as many obstacles as the life of a non-Christian. Yet, the Christian’s journey is different from everyone else’s. A Christian has God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible to turn to in times of trouble. The Bible is equipped with promises from God that Christians can use to motivate themselves. It also has answers to questions about God’s will for an individual’s life. By reading the Bible, praying, attending church, and enjoying the fellowship of other believers, Christians can accumulate strategies, such as awareness of wrongdoing, repentance, and constant communication with God, to combat the wiles of the devil, who attacks from within and without. The Christian also has faith, hope, and love to ease difficult times throughout the journey. The Christian’s greatest strategy involves focusing on the ultimate goal available at the end of the journey: eternal life in heaven. Graham says the journey is a marathon, not a sprint, and individuals must pace themselves to make it to a victorious end.

Sources for Further Study

Apel, William D. “The Lost World of Billy Graham.” Review of Religious Research 20, no. 2 (Spring, 1979): 138-149. Apel argues that Billy Graham’s cosmology, or knowledge of the nature of the universe, is largely influenced by revivalists, particularly Dwight L. Moody; notions of the American dream; and understandings of connections between existentialism and Christianity. Apel focuses on Graham’s belief in a hopeless world and Christ’s inevitable second coming.

Drummond, Lewis A. The Evangelist: The Worldwide Impact of Billy Graham. Nashville, Tenn.: Word, 2001. Drummond places Billy Graham’s ministry and his life in historical perspective while describing his invaluable legacy.

Eskridge, Larry. “’One Way’: Billy Graham, the Jesus Generation, and the Idea of an Evangelical Youth Culture.” Church History 67 (March, 1998): 83-106. Eskridge describes Graham’s influence on and participation in the Jesus Movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Using his dealings with his own rebellious son, Franklin Graham, Billy Graham tried to exert patience and understanding when ministering to American youth. He also found ways to use youth and popular culture in his ministry to help lead young adults to declare Jesus Christ as their savior.

Myra, Harold, and Marshall Shelley. The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005. The authors maintain that Billy Graham, one of the few internationally known evangelists who have advised presidents and preached to billions, also has impressive business savvy. Graham served as chief executive officer of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for more than fifty years and established several Christian magazines, youth organizations, and humanitarian efforts. Myra and Shelley scrutinize Graham’s faith-based leadership qualities and practices so that others might use their findings to help them improve their own leadership potential.