Elizabeth Elliot Devotions

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Not Power But Privilege
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


Jesus gave responsibility and power to those who were willing to take the path He took. They were to represent the kingdom wherever they went--their peace to rest on those who received them. Those who rejected them were actually rejecting Christ. His followers would have power over snakes and scorpions.

There are principles here for us today, I believe. Surely every believer represents Christ and his kingdom. We are promised power from the Holy Spirit. But as soon as his power is manifest, another spirit is there instantly to tempt us to take credit to ourselves. If we are thanked for something we were merely the instrument for, it can become a heady business. Wow! we say, imagining that we deserve the credit.

Jesus warned the disciples not to be impressed when spirits submitted to them. It was not by their might or power that the enemy was subdued. They were nothing more than bearers of the kingdom. He told them to rejoice, not that they had performed a miraculous feat, but that their names were written in heaven.

Open my eyes, Lord, to recognize that the power is always yours. What is mine is the privilege, given from above, for your glory.

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Your Troubles--Whose Fault?
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


I never noticed until this morning the context of this command in the Epistle of James: "My brothers, do not blame your troubles on one another or you will fall under judgment" (Jas 5:9 NEB). The context is patience. A farmer's precious crop comes up only as he waits patiently for autumn rains, winter snows, spring sunshine. Anything worth having is worth waiting for.

Troubles are permitted in order to teach us many lessons, not the least of which is patience. If we instantly assign responsibility for those troubles to somebody else, our energies will go into resentment instead of into learning God's lesson of patient waiting. The Lord's coming is far more certain than even autumn rains and winter snows. We can stand firm and patient no matter how others treat us, knowing that in the end our troubles will be transformed.

"The Lord is full of pity and compassion" (Jas 5:11)--can we believe that, even when we feel sorry for ourselves because we are so badly treated? He knows it all. He purposes a crop. Be patient. It will come.

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Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


When we begin to imagine that our own problems are so deep, so insoluble, or so unusual that no one really understands us, we delude ourselves. It is one of the many delusions of pride, for Scripture tells us not only that our High Priest, Christ, has been tempted in every way as we are, but that no temptation has ever come our way that is not common to man. There are no more new temptations than there are new sins. Our story, whatever it is, is an old one, and He who has walked the human road has entered fully into our experiences of sorrow and pain and has overcome them. He has comforted others in our situation, gone with them into the same furnaces and lions' dens, has brought them out without smell of fire or mark of tooth.

It is a bad thing to take refuge in difficulties, thus excusing ourselves from responsibility to others because we think our situation is unique. If we are willing to receive help, our Helper is standing by--sometimes in the form of another human being sent by Him, qualified by Him to help us. It may be a case of our not receiving help because we were too proud to receive the kind God sent. Sometimes we really prefer to wallow.

"Ours is not a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, because of his likeness to us, has been tested every way, only without sin. Let us therefore boldly approach the throne of our gracious God, where we may receive mercy and in his grace find timely help" (Heb 4:15, 16 NEB).

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The Danger of Not Knowing God
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


We are meant to be witnesses for God--people who have seen and known Him and are willing to speak of what they see and know. Sometimes there is danger for such people--as in Russia, where it can mean forced labor, banishment, death.

In China in the early 1930s a missionary couple, John and Betty Stam, were captured by Chinese Communists and marched through the streets of the village to a chopping block where each was beheaded. If they had been willing to recant their Christian faith, their lives would have been spared. Given their commitment to Christ, such a choice was unthinkable. They placed not only their lives but the life of their baby, Helen Priscilla, in the hands of God, confident that God could protect them if He chose, and, if He chose not to, it was safer to be in those hands than anywhere else in the universe. Like thousands of Christians before them, they preferred the sword to disobedience, believing that the danger of not knowing God is infinitely greater than any other danger.

Lord, be our Sun and Shield. Shine on us, protect us as we seek to live and witness to your truth. Forgive us (especially those of us who have never faced lions, fire, or sword because of our faith) for our fears of petty loss. Remind us that it is in losing ourselves that we find You.

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Confusion
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


There are many bewildered and miserable Christians today. Confusion seems to characterize many Christian homes; marriages are described as "a mess"; kids are called "mixed up", people say they can't "get their heads together."

There is a clue to the cause of all this in Matthew 9:35. It is the lack of authority. When a flock of sheep is left without a shepherd, they are bewildered and miserable, not knowing what to do, where to go. No one is there to lead them.

Where there is no word of authority, there is no direction, no control, no power, for power comes by restraint and guidance. The Lord, our Shepherd, leads us to pleasant pastures and refreshing waters which are for our own good. He leads us also in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Disobedience to his authority results in confusion.

This disobedience to God's authority frequently shows itself in refusal to exercise or to obey the authority God has assigned here on earth, in government, work, church, and home. No wonder there is bewilderment and misery.

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Message to the Thirsty
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


When Jesus went up to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, there were fierce arguments among the Jews as to his identity and his authority for speaking. He answered them, yet they refused to accept the reply and wanted only to be rid of Him. On the last day of the festival He turned to another group of whom nearly every crowd, even the most hostile, will usually contain a few--those who are thirsty for God.

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me" (Jn 7:37 NEB). Jesus raised his voice to issue this invitation. He wanted it to be heard above all the din of bustling and contention. Someone would be there to whom it would be like cold water. "Whoever believes in Me, let him drink."

Sometimes we are famished--confused, dry, upset by arguments and conflicting interpretations. To us the Savior says, "Come." If, without the solution to all our problems, we are willing simply to believe, He says, "Drink."

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Christ is Message and Messenger
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet

Every word spoken by Jesus must be understood by the life of Jesus. The one cannot be separated from the other. If we attempt to understand what He said without reference to what He did, we do violence to God's revelation of Himself. Here are some examples:

"Give up your right to yourself." Can this mean self-destruction, masochism, obliteration of the personality? See the perfect Son of God, exercising his human will in the fullness of its God-given power, as He offers Himself, pours out his soul unto death. What life streams from that giving up. What strength springs from his weakness.

"The truth shall make you free" (Jn 8:32 AV)--words often wrested away from their context ("lf you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free") and also away from the Man who spoke them. His life, his every act, was perfectly free. It was free because He heard the Word of the Father, did what He saw Him do, and knew Him. His freedom was the result of his obedience. There is no shortcut to our freedom. We must live the life Christ lived--a life of faith, a will offered to the Father, daily obedience.

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Nothing is Lost
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


Paul was a man who suffered the loss of everything, according to his own claim. Yet any loss he counted pure gain. The key to this transforming of earthly losses into heavenly gains is love. What do we love? If our hearts are set on people and possessions and position, the loss of those will indeed be irreparable. To the man or woman whose heart is set on Christ no loss on earth can be irreparable.

It may shock us for the moment. We may feel hurt, outraged, desolate, helpless. That is our humanity. But the Lord can show us the "long view," the incalculable gain in spiritual and eternal terms, if we love Him above all. Everything that belongs to us belongs also to Him. Everything that belongs to Him belongs also to us. What, then, can we finally lose? If we lose not Christ Himself, we have finally lost nothing, for He is our treasure and He has our hearts.

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The Lust for Security
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


Once we have set ourselves to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth, which is what Christians are meant to be, it is incongruous for us to continue to insist upon the sort of security the world tries to guarantee. Our security lies not in protecting ourselves from suffering, but in putting ourselves fully into the hands of God. The desire for physical and material security makes us sly and hard. No. We must be like little children. The child in its father's arms is not worried. It lies quietly at rest because it trusts its father.

We disobey sometimes because we say it is impossible to do what God asks. Impossible? Perhaps what we mean is impossible to do that and keep our security, impossible to obey without tremendous cost, or at least tremendous risk. Where, then, will we find safety? Is it likely that we will find it elsewhere than in the arms of the Father?

Teach me to rest in your everlasting arms. Make me know that all other security is illusion.

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Immunity--No. Grace--Yes.
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet

Someone asked last week, "When Jim died was your walk with the Lord close enough that His love and comfort and presence were sufficient at all times--or did grief and sorrow at times overtake and overwhelm you?"

My answer is yes to both questions. It is not an either-or matter. The psalmist, overwhelmed, prayed, "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I" (Ps 61:2 AV).

Paul, plagued by a thorn, besought the Lord three times to remove it.

Jesus, "horror-stricken and desperately depressed," prayed "O My Father--if it be possible..." (Mk 14:34,36).

Of none of these--the psalmist, the apostle, the Lord--could it be said that his walk with God was not close enough. There was human suffering and divine sufficiency. This is the story of our life. The promise is "My grace is sufficient" (2 Cor 12:9 AV), not "My grace will abolish your thorns."

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The Rupture of Self
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


Sometimes our prayers are for deliverance from conditions which are morally indispensable--that is, conditions which are absolutely necessary to our redemption. God does not grant us those requests. He will not because He loves us with a pure and implacable purpose: that Christ be formed in us. If Christ is to live in my heart, if his life is to be lived in me, I will not be able to contain Him. The self, small and hard and resisting as a nut, will have to be ruptured. My own purposes and desires and hopes will have to at times be exploded. The rupture of the self is death, but out of death comes life. The acorn must rupture if an oak tree is to grow.

It will help us to remember, when we do not receive the answer we hoped for, that it is morally necessary, morally indispensable, that some of our prayers be denied, "that the life of Jesus may be plainly seen in these bodies of ours" (2 Cor 4:11 JBP). Then think of this: the agonized prayer of Jesus in the garden went unanswered, too. Why? In order that life--our life--might spring forth from death--his death.

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Volunteer Slaves
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


"Slave" is not a word most of us nowadays feel comfortable with. It is significant that most modern Bible translations use "servant" instead. For a slave is not his own, has no rights whatsoever, is not in charge of what happens to him, makes no choices about what he will do or how he is to serve, is not recognized, appreciated, thanked or even (except by his absence) noticed at all.

Once we give up our slavery to the world, which is a cruel master indeed, to become Christ's bondslave, we live out our servitude to Him by glad service to others. This volunteer slavery cannot be taken advantage of--we have chosen to surrender everything for love. It is a wholly different thing from forced labor. It is in fact the purest joy when it is most unobserved, most unself-conscious, most simple, most freely offered.

Lord, break the chains that hold me to myself; free me to be your happy slave--that is, to be the happy foot-washer of anyone today who needs his feet washed, his supper cooked, his faults overlooked, his work commended, his failure forgiven, his griefs consoled, or his button sewed on. Let me not imagine that my love for You is very great if I am unwilling to do for a human being something very small.

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The Token of Integrity
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet

"With a servant, a warrior, a child, a subject," writes Andrew Murray in The New Life, "obedience is indispensable, the first token of integrity."

God is my Master, my Captain, my Father, my King. I am servant, warrior, child, subject. What have I to do in any of these cases but obey?

Integrity means wholeness, unbroken condition, the quality of being unimpaired and sound. An integer is something which is complete in itself, an entity. No one can serve two masters. Divided loyalty will mean impaired obedience. "A soldier on active service will not let himself be involved in civilian affairs; he must be wholly at his commanding officer's disposal" (2 Tm 2:4 NEB).

O Christ, be Master and Captain of my life. Give me a whole heart united to do your bidding and to do nothing else. Let me hear your voice and no other. Make my life an integer for your glory. Amen.

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What's My Score?
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


I was tempted this morning--no, not merely tempted, I actually did it--to pray, "Lord, I've been disobedient in many things, but I've been obedient in the 'big' things, haven't I, Lord?"

"What would you call loving Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Is it a little thing?"

"Oh Lord, no."

"And is it a little thing to love your neighbor as yourself?"

"It is a very big thing, Lord--especially when I try to include you-know-who."

"These two things are all I require. Do them and you will have fulfilled all the law."

Silence. So much for my self-righteousness.

"Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner."

___________________

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All Things Serve Thee
By Elisabeth Elliot
Taken From: A Lamp For My Feet


During my husband Addison's terminal illness, everything in our lives was changing. The cancer had spread with a speed which startled the doctors. I found during those hard days and nights strength in the ringing words of the liturgy, proclaimed aloud as the congregation knelt: "Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again." I could hold onto those immutable facts.

The psalmist found the same strength in the Lord's infrangible decrees: "This day, as ever, Thy decrees stand fast: for all things serve Thee" (Ps 119:91 NEB). The Lord is not subject to vicissitudes, exigencies, and contingencies. "Accidents" are, in fact, subject to the Lord of the universe, the blessed Controller of all things.

"Thy promise endures for all time, stable as the earth which Thou hast fixed" (Ps 119:90 NEB).

He "fixes," that is, He sets in place, the whole earth. Surely He can fix and establish my heart. Every "happening" serves Him.

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