Elizabeth Elliot Devotions

[nChrist]

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture:
The Path of Lonliness


The Focus of Faith

In one of the photo albums from my years in Ecuador is a close-up of a big scorpion on a window screen. I know what was beyond that ugly thing--a green lawn set about with palm trees, a garden of pineapples, a sweep of pasture land, and then the curve of a wide river. The photograph knows nothing of all that. The photographer had focused on the scorpion. He got a very good picture of a scorpion. The eye of the camera saw nothing else.

The eye of faith looks through and past that which the human eye focuses on. Faith looks at the facts--even the ugly ones (remember Abraham who looked at his wife's barrenness and his own impotence)--but does not stop there. It looks beyond to the beauty of things the human eye can never see--things as invisible as the palms and the pineapples are in my photograph.

When the eye of the heart is fixed on the world and the self, everything eternal and invisible is blurred and obscure. No wonder we cannot recognize God--we are studying the scorpion. Instead of gazing at Him in all his majesty and love, we peer at the screen, horrified at what we see there.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Make my heart pure, Lord, that I may will to do your will. Give me the courage to see my world with all its evil and pain, but change the focus of my life.

Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me
A living, bright reality,
More present to faith's vision keen
Than any outward object seen,
More dear, more intimately nigh
Than e'en the sweetest earthly tie.
--(J.B. French)

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: All That Was Ever Ours
Scripture:
The Path of Lonliness


'M' is for a Merry Heart - Page 1

Special occasions like Mother's Day put different kinds of burdens on different people. Those whose work involves expressing themselves publicly usually feel that on such occasions they "ought to say something" appropriate to the day. At first I shied away from this, because I always shy away from things that might turn out to be soupy. But as I thought more about it I realized that it wasn't a question of "ought to" but a good excuse to write down just one or two things, at least, about a remarkable mother I know very well--my own. And if I write about her it won't be soupy.

She is nearly seventy-two years old now, and that fact, coupled with people's applying to her adjectives like "alert" and "spry" and "very much alive" remind me that she is in the category of "old." People certainly don't use those adjectives much for other age groups. But it is hard to think of Katharine Gillingham Howard as old.

She lives alone in a house in Florida between some orange groves and a golf course. She makes good use of the groves but she hardly has time even to look at the golf course, let alone play on it. Time does not hang heavy on her hands, and one of the things she does with it is to keep up a steady and cheerful correspondence with her six married children and her fifteen grandchildren. We write to her, make carbons of our letters, and she writes to all of us and sends the carbons around every week.

She has taken a lot of teasing in her life with us, and we still tease her in letters and she teases back. She is one of those people who knows how to laugh, hard. When you stop to think of it, how many people in your acquaintance can laugh hilariously, until tears roll down their faces?

And one of the things we never let her alone about is the way she uses emotionally loaded words. Three of the six of us grew up during the Depression and were taught many small economies, including turning off lights and things. If Mother found a light left on where it wasn't needed, the light was blazing. A radio in an empty room was not just on, it was blaring. A child with no clothes on was not merely naked, he was running around naked. (Of course I'm not saying my mother is the only one who does this. People have asked me I don't know how many times, of the Indian tribe I knew in Ecuador, "Do you mean to say they just run around completely naked?" The idea of people doing quite ordinary things like sitting still or cooking with no clothes on seems to be a hard one to grasp.)

It was not possible, apparently, for Mother simply to take the children downtown. Children were dragged downtown and through the stores. If our friends came to visit us after school they traipsed through the kitchen, traipsed upstairs, traipsed through the bedrooms.

No matter how poor we were, my parents somehow contrived to have a guest room and it was frequently filled. Mother was a good hostess, and it seemed we were always meeting trains in Philadelphia or boats in New York that had missionaries on them, and we understood that it was a privilege to have guests in our home. Schoolboys who came home with my brothers on holidays from boarding school were in a separate category in my mother's mind, I think, though she was very sweet about having them. They were always clattering up and down stairs, sloshing around in the bathroom, and bumping down the halls with suitcases.

My father--very tall, very studious, and very fond of the outdoors--was not much good at all around the house, but occasionally he would try to spare Mother some work by fixing his own or, on very rare occasions, her breakfast. It never turned out especially well because she lay in bed, stark staring awake, and had to listen to him rattling around in the kitchen.

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[nChrist]

'M' is for a Merry Heart - Page 2

Mother's cooking was strictly sensible, plain and nourishing, and she was an expert at meat and potatoes. (She was raised, my father used to say, on roast beef, while he was brought up on fried smelts, Beauregard eggs, and jelly.) She had no time for fancy salads or dessert. Fresh or canned fruit and store-bought cookies were a fairly standard dessert because they didn't require fiddling.

When I came home from boarding school I felt that the menus at home were just too, too ordinary. "Well," said Mother, not much moved, "you just go ahead and do all the fiddling you want."

If she was talking about a shopping trip to Germantown, which she loved (she had grown up there and no one could ever convince her that there were stores elsewhere equal to Germantown's), she said she would "just run over there." If she was talking about one of my father's numerous speaking engagements, which were sometimes burdensome, he wouldn't run over, he would have to trail way out to Fox Chase or Doylestown.

A single woman named Daphne, who was always on the edge of financial ruin and therefore had to make do with a succession of battered old cars, never just drove to see us, she came trundling down the turnpike.

Well, it must have been quite a life for her. You wonder how anybody survives all the blazing lights, blaring radios, dragging of children, traipsing, clattering, sloshing and bumping, rattling around, fiddling, trailing, and trundling. Now that we have children of our own we know what she means, and increasingly appreciate the color and jollity of the life she made for us. We know, too, that there was a far deeper source of strength than her "merry heart" which, as the writer of the Proverbs said, "doeth good like a medicine." She often needed a great deal more than merriment--she needed a Rock that was higher than she. She found him, and with my father, she led us to him. We are grateful for that, and for what she put up with, and if you were to ask her now to tell about it, it would not sound chaotic or pitiable at all, I think. She would admit that she used all those vivid words, all right, but she would never have thought of them as loaded, and she would probably have to wipe her eyes for laughing at the pictures they recall.

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Luke 6:49
The Path of Lonliness


When the River Bursts

Psychologists chart "stress factors" related to various kinds of emotional trauma and the response of different people to those factors--death, divorce, job loss, illness, and such which threaten the very foundations of people's lives. What can hold us at such times?

In a simple story Jesus showed the secret of stability. One man comes to Jesus, hears Him, and acts on what he hears. He is like the man who builds a house on solid rock. Another man hears (is exposed to the same truth, given equal opportunity) but does not act (does not choose to act) on the word he hears. Jesus said he is building a house on sand. When floods come, the river bursts upon it (Lk 6:49 NEB), the house collapses and falls with a great crash.

What sort of floods was He talking about? What rivers might be likely to burst over a man's house? Surely He meant the stresses of life, not terribly different from the stresses we experience, anything that shakes the foundations. It is at such times that we become aware of what those foundations are. Have we laid them on the Rock that never moves, or have we, merely by not obeying the word we have heard, been laying them on sand? That sand is the self--shifty, unstable, carried back and forth by conflicting currents (popular opinions, for example?), utterly undependable and incapable of holding up under pressure.

Lead me, Lord, to the Rock that is higher than I. Let me hear your word, give me grace to obey, to build steadily, stone upon stone, day by day, to do what You say. Establish my heart where floods have no power to overwhelm, for Christ's sake. Amen.

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:12 1 Corinthians 4:7
The Path of Lonliness


Power to Keep

There are two readings for 2 Tm 1:12, "I know who it is in whom I have trusted, and am confident of his power to keep safe what he has put into my charge"(NEB) or "what I have put into his charge." Christ has all the power needed to keep anything safe. What He gives me, or what I give Him, He can take care of. I can rest in perfect assurance, having that kind of coverage.

And--come to think of it--have I anything to put into his charge that He has not first put into mine? It all comes to the same thing. "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" (1 Cor 4:7 AV).

Paul was writing from prison, where he was powerless to help those he loved or to look after things he cared for. No matter. He knew the One who is never powerless. He was sure of his power to keep.

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Romans 4:21 Hebrews 13:5 Colossians 1:27 Colossians 2:10 Philippians 4:19
The Path of Lonliness


Footprints of Faith

If we look for perfect models of faithfulness, we shall find one and only one--Jesus Christ. All others are flawed, for all others are sinners. Yet Abraham, who had his faults, is held up in the Letter to the Romans as a model of what faith is about. He took God at his word, when human hope was exhausted, "firm in the conviction of His power to do what He had promised" (Rom 4:21 NEB).

Walk, then, in those footprints. Don't try to be Abraham. Don't insist that God fulfill for you the promise given to Abraham. He is not going to make you the father of many nations. But hang on without giving place to the tiniest skepticism, to the promises given to all of us in Christ. "You are complete in Him" (Col 2:10 AV), for example. "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27 AV). "God shall supply all your need" (Phil 4:19 AV). "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Heb 13:5 AV). Not to waver in your conviction that God means what He says is to walk in the footprints of faith.

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Matthew 4:3
The Path of Lonliness


Signs Do Not Nourish

It is the enemy who tempts us, as he tempted Jesus, to demand always some visible proof of the miracle-working power of God: "Tell these stones to become bread" (Mt 4:3 NEB). A miracle would validate our own claim to be in close touch with the Father. But the important thing in life is not to be vindicated, nor to see miracles, but to walk by faith--that is, to take God at his word. So shall we live.

So shall we follow Christ, content to do without the startling, the dramatic evidences that God is God, believing instead--in the face of all the enemy's taunts--the spoken Word of Him who calls Himself the I AM. Even in the wilderness, even in our isolation and hunger, we need not ask for more than the Bread of Heaven.

Give us this day, Lord,
Not the miracles our human hearts long for,
Not the proud but brief satisfaction of saying to doubters,
"I told you so!"
But give us daily bread--only that which You see will truly nourish us in our pilgrimage towards home.

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Hopes_Daughter Said:

So what did you think of my smiley? I guess it was not very impressive. I will experiment and see if I can come up with something better.

I think you did fine, and I do remember the time when all smilies were text. I have a list somewhere of the smilies they used to use on FIDONet. I had a Christian and Law Enforcement Bulletin Board on FIDONet for many years. Nearly everything was plain text then. Clicking one of the forum smilies is much easier than having to keep up with a list, so I really don't miss the old text smilies.   

Love In Christ,
Tom

Romans 8:16-18 NASB  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

[nChrist]

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Psalm 44
The Path of Lonliness


Adversaries

The Psalms are full of prayers to God to defeat adversaries-nations, foes, enemies. The Lord of hosts (also translated the Lord of the armies of heaven) is called upon to arise and conquer. People who live in a country not at war may tend to skip over such prayers as not applicable to them, unless they recognize as an adversary anything or anyone that would defeat the purpose of God. Adverse circumstances affect us all, and we feel as helpless as the Israelites, hotly pursued by the cavalry, infantry, horses, and chariots of Egypt. As I write this, it happens that we find ourselves impotent to untangle a certain legal matter--helpless before the delays, the refusal to accept responsibility, the apparent dilatoriness of the attorneys involved. Money is being wasted, people's rights ignored; frustrations abound.

The peoples shake their heads at us;...

I am covered with shame....

But we do not forget Thee,...

We have not gone back on our purpose....

Bestir Thyself, Lord; why cost Thou sleep?...

Arise and come to our help;

For Thy love's sake set us free.

(Ps 44:14,15,17,18,23,26 NEB)

If it were not for the adversaries who make us conscious of our impotence, how would we learn to trust God's omnipotence?

Lord of the armies of heaven, I praise You for your power to conquer. Teach me to trust your power, not mine.

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:20
The Path of Lonliness


A Bondslave of Christ

Abraham was a very wealthy man who had many servants. He himself, knowing well what makes a good servant, was a faithful and obedient servant of God.

Nowadays most of us have never had servants and therefore have almost no notion of what it means to be one. It means first of all to have a master--that is, to belong to someone else. He can do what he wants with you; you are there to do for him. You are at his disposal. It is not for you to reason why he asks something of you; it is yours only to do it. So long as you are in his service, you are not your own (1 Cor 6:20).

Abraham was a man full of faith, obedient to his Lord, readily at his command.

Master, help me to live today according to your desires, and when I reach home may You be able to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: 1 Peter 4:10
The Path of Lonliness


Dispensers of Grace

Each Christian is a dispenser. God has supplied each one with gifts He has selected (He does not offer an array of options), with the good of all in mind. When we imagine that these gifts are for our own mere satisfaction, we are forgetting they are intended for service. All that I have is meant to contribute to the needs of others, and what I need will be supplied through God's dispensers. Thus He unifies and harmonizes the whole church, which is his body, making each dispenser indispensable, for each dispenses a grace which is peculiarly his.

"Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you, as faithful dispensers of the magnificently varied grace of God" (l Pt 4:10 NEB).

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture:
The Path of Lonliness


Not to Be Served but to Serve

It is the mark of a mature man that his sense of responsibility takes precedence over his own feelings. It is a mark of godliness that he acknowledges God's care of all men, not only of himself. Moses was such a man. When God told him that he must go up Mt. Nebo, look over the land promised to Israel, and then die without entering into it because of his disobedience at Meribah, there is not a word of resentment of self-pity or self-justification from Moses.

Instead his concern was for the people he had been shepherding, that they might be "brought home." The God to whom he addressed the prayer was "God of the spirits of all mankind." Moses saw things with a vision that encompassed far more than his own horizon.

Lord, deliver us from smallness and self-pity. "Make us masters of ourselves that we may be the servants of others"(Sir Alexander Patterson).

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Philippians 2:2 Philippians 2:15
The Path of Lonliness


Stars in a Dark World

One of the letters the apostle Paul wrote from prison begs his friends to think and feel alike, to love, to have the "same turn of mind, and a common care for unity" (Phil 2:2 NEB). In such company there would be no room for rivalry or personal vanity. Each one would be thinking the others better, seeking to put their interests first.

Obedience, humility, cheerfulness ("Do all you have to do without complaint or wrangling") are rare in a warped and crooked world--nearly nonexistent, in fact, where each lives for his own ends. If a marriage counselor were to ask each partner, "What are your goals?" and the answer were "How can I best serve my husband or wife? What can I do to further his or her goals?" the counseling period would be over, the bill low. Any two people, any community of Christians who set themselves to look only to the other's interest would be a rare and radiant thing, shining, as Paul said, "like stars in a dark world" (Phil 2:15 NEB).

In that same sense, a Christian might well pray, "Lord, make me a star."

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: John 15:14 John 14:21
The Path of Lonliness


How to Know God

The order of the Christian's assignment is: hear, do, know. If we hear the commandments and obey them, the Father will make Himself known to us. It is no use trying to know Him without doing what He says. To listen to one word and go out and obey it is better than having the most exalted "religious experience," for it puts us in touch with God Himself--it is a willed response.

"If you really love me you will keep the commandments I have given you." It is perilously easy to imagine that we love God because we like the idea of God, or because we feel drawn to Him. The only valid test of love is obedience. Take one thing commanded and start doing it. Take one thing forbidden and stop doing it. Then we are on the sure road to knowing God. There is no other.

"You are my friends, if you do what I command you" (Jn 15:14 NEB).

"The man who has received my commands and obeys them--he it is who loves me: and he who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and disclose myself to him" (Jn 14:21). There is the order: hear, do, know.

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Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet
Scripture: Matthew 10:34
The Path of Lonliness


Leave the Results with God

Scripture does not promise that obedience to God will always be attended by earthly success and never by difficulties. Someone asked me again last week if I am not bothered by the negative results attending our opening up the Auca tribe to the gospel. "Of course I am bothered," I said. We messengers of the gospel are sinners like the Aucas--God has chosen to work through sinful human beings--and while we offer to them Bread and the Water of Life, which are priceless, we also introduce to them new varieties of sin and disease. We pray for protection from such things--for ourselves and for them. We must do the thing commanded--preach the gospel--and we must trust God for the results. If we wait until we are sure we shall do a thing purely and perfectly, we shall never accomplish the will of God on earth.

Negative results are not by any means always the fault of God's messengers. Recall the warnings Jesus gave his disciples when He sent them out to preach the kingdom--they could expect to be rejected, arrested, and flogged. Families would turn against each other. "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword," he said (Mt 10:34 NEB). Recall, too, the death of innocent infant boys as a result of the birth of One who the king feared might supplant him. God is engineering a master plan for good. Only He sees the end from the beginning.

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