Some Lesser Known Lessons From Elisabeth Elliot {pt 2}
Yesterday I shared some of my notes from lectures by Elisabeth Elliot. Today I’ll share a few more words that may bless you from her life.
From Let Me Be A Woman
Love is not possessive.
Love is not anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own ideas.
Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage.
Love is not touchy.
Love does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.
Love knows no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything.
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From Quest for Love
“Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person’s seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next.”
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This quote has been taped to my fridge so many times during the years. It was such a help to me during my early motherhood years!
“This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.”
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From Keep A Quiet Heart
Why is God doing this to me? When I am tempted to ask that question, it loses its power when I remember that this Lord, into whose strong hands I long ago committed my life, is engineering a universe of unimaginable proportions and complexity… yet He makes note of the smallest seed and the tiniest sparrow. He is not too busy to keep records of even my falling hair. Yet in our darkness we suppose that He has overlooked us. He hasn’t.
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From Keep A Quiet Heart on Jesus sleeping through the storm
He slept in the calm assurance that His father was in control. His was a quiet heart. We see him move serenely through all the events of His life–when He was reviled, He did not revile in return…Jesus in the unbroken intimacy of His Father’s love kept a quiet heart.
Purity of heart is to will one thing. The Son willed only one thing: the will of His Father. That’s what He came to earth to do. Nothing else. One whose aim is as pure as that can have a completely quiet heart, knowing what the psalmist knew: “Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup, and have made my lot secure.” (Ps. 16:5) I know of no greater simplifier for all of life. Whatever happens is assigned.
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A quiet heart is content with what God gives. It is enough. All is grace.
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What do we really want in life? Sometimes I have the chance to ask this question to high school students…I am surprised how few have a ready answer. Oh, they come up with quite a long list of things, but is there one thing above all others that they desire?
“One thing have I desired of the Lord,” said David, “This is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…”
In the parable of the sower, Jesus tells us that the seed which is choked by thorns has fallen into a heart full of the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things.
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An Empty Chalise, Lecture
If we are true servants, we won’t make a fuss about the fact that that’s not my job.
“Let thy love abound in our hearts and sweetly and powerfully constrain us to all faithful and cheerful obedience.”
Mary was a shining example of servanthood. She was a child, really, and she loved God. Jesus said, John 14, a clue to what it means to love God…if you love me, do what I say.” The singing and the talking and the praying about loving God does not come close to obedience. The only valid test of our love for God is our obedience.
“We love because he first loved us.” and it was his love for God that was shown in His obedience. (Jesus) “The world must be shown that I love the father and will do exactly what He says.” And that is still true. The world must be shown that we love the Father and will do exactly what He says.
Mary’s response to the angel…she was troubled…but she was a girl who knew how to keep her poise, but the words, “The Lord is with you.” The angel said, “You have found favor with God. You will be with child, you will name him Jesus…His kingdom will never end.”
What are the limits to our love? The Lord says, “If you love me, do what I say.” Can you search your heart and see what the Lord is telling you to do that you are evading? Are you consciously disobeying? If we are to be made proper servants, proper servants, we surrender all our rights.The servant is at someone elses orders. He has no agenda of his own.
So, ask, Lord, What are the limits of my love?
Am I supposed to love that woman in the church who makes things so hard for everyone, or that woman on the committee, that difficult person…difficult spouse.
Do we love enough? True love is always sacrificial.
“Behold the handmaiden of the Lord.” Let it happen as you say it should.
Mary said, “Yes, Lord.”
Betty Stam: “Anything you say, Lord. I give up all my own plans and purposes and accept (receive with both hands) thy will for my life.”
When people ask me about finding the will of God in life, I tell them that my experience has been that if we are obedient in this present moment, this one day–because we have no guarantees of tomorrow– that tomorrow’s guidance will be perfectly clear when tomorrow comes.
“In acceptance lieth peace.” Amy Charmichael. Obedience is the proof of love.
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The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.