God's Delays

I suppose no one, however long he has lived a life of prayer, is immune to the enemy’s attack on his confidence that prayer “works.” Again and again we are tempted to feel that God is not paying attention, our prayers are futile, why should we keep on praying? Jesus told a story about a widow who made such a nuisance of herself that even a judge who cared nothing for her or for God was finally moved to action. He used this to teach us never to lose heart. “Will not God vindicate His chosen, who cry out to Him day and night, while He listens patiently to them?” (Luke 18:7). A note says that that last phrase may also be translated “While He delays to help them.” It is worth remembering, when the delays tempt us to quit praying, that He is listening patiently ---paying attention when we feel He has forgotten all about our prayer, biding His time. And He Himself is the very One, remember, who commanded us to keep on praying and never lose heart. He is listening. He will act. Do not doubt His promise.

Find Joy

When Paul was in prison he wrote a very happy letter to the Christians in Philippi. He used the word joy over and over. How did he manage to find joy in such a dark place? Was he some sort of plaster saint, immune to human misery? He was not. He found joy, I believe, because he was always looking for it. Many people are always looking for misery, and it is not hard to find. When they’ve found it, they tell everybody about it----much more about it than anybody wants to know. Others are continually looking for joy. This is not the same thing as pursuing happiness, which depends on happenings. Joy depends on Christ living in us, and being allowed to make us joyful. This can happen in the worst of earthly circumstances. From prison Paul wrote, “I wish you joy in the Lord! I will say it again: all joy be yours” (Phil 4:4). Look for joy in God and you’ll find it.

The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot

Fiery Ordeals: Nothing Extraordinary

There are certainly many different kinds of suffering and degrees of intensity, but the one we happen to be facing now always seems particularly severe. Never mind. Even if it is a fiery ordeal, Peter reminds us that there is nothing “extraordinary” about it. We often refer to the “mystery” of suffering and talk as though God has provided no clues whatsoever to His purposes –if He has a purpose. He has. And His book gives a number of clues. “It gives you a share in Christ’s suffering, and that is cause for joy” (1 Peter 4:13).

Is your suffering physical? Christ knows about that.

Has a friend betrayed you? Christ knows about that.

Did someone you love break your heart? Christ knows about that.

Have you suffered a serious loss? Christ knows about that.

Is it false accusation, misrepresentation, the refusal to believe in your love? Christ knows very well what that is like.

Then in all of these things, you enter a little bit deeper into the knowledge of Christ and the fellowship of His sufferings. What are those privileges worth to you? Be joyful, then! Be thankful! Alleluia!

The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot

False Conclusions

When the children of Israel received the report of the tall men of Eshcol they were terrified, they refused to go up, and immediately concluded that God hated them. How could He love them if He had taken them out of Egypt only to deliver them over to giants to be wiped out? (see Deut. 1:27.)

It looked like a logical deduction, based on what little human evidence they had. But of course they were totally ignoring far more important and trustworthy evidence: the promise of God. He had promised a rich land, a Father’s care, and everything they would need en route.

We look backwards at the “good old days,” and bemoan our losses; we look around us to the many threats to our security, and tremble with fear. Our conclusions are false. God has not forgotten us. He does not hate us. He is taking us to a rich land if we will only trust and obey instead of making things complicated for ourselves.

The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot

Even In Temptation

It is easy to feel that God has left us alone or turned His attention elsewhere when we are being tempted. The reality of the enemy’s presence can dim the sense of God’s. But Scripture tells us that Jesus was “led by the Spirit up and down the wilderness and tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:2). I imagine the presence of Satan seemed at times nearly overpowering to Jesus (remember, He was a man, tempted exactly as we are tempted), and He summoned against him the Sword of the Spirit: “Its is written.” The Spirit had not left Him for a moment, even though the enemy was terribly present, and when the wilderness experience was over, we are told, “Jesus, armed with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee” (Luke 4:14).

I do most desperately need that assurance today ---the assurance that no matter how powerful the temptation of the enemy may be, and no matter how watery-weak I know myself to be (e.g., I can’t concentrate in prayer, or I react with sudden anger to something somebody does), the Holy Spirit has not left me alone. He is here to guide me through my “wilderness,” and to arm me, as He armed Jesus, with His power.

The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot

Choose To Be Strong and Resolute

When the Lord commissioned Joshua to take over from Moses the leadership of His people, these were the words of the commission: Be strong, be resolute.

God appealed directly to the man’s will. When a man’s will lines up with God’s, that is faith. Joshua could have chosen to disobey, but the choice was to be strong or to be weak, to be resolute or to vacillate. Obedience would mean, for Joshua and for all of Israel, what it always means for any of us: Life, Nothing less than Life. God was not asking an impossible thing. He never does, for what He asks (or what He commands) He will certainly enable us to do. He was not appealing to Joshua’s temperament or moods or natural inclinations, but to his will. Would he obey? Would he accept the charge to be strong and resolute? He would and he did.

The task God has for us today is not the leadership of a great tribe, but, whatever it is, we must choose to be strong----in His strength----and to be resolute-----by His grace. When we bring our wills, wholly under the divine strength and that amazing grace, who can estimate the possibilities of such a union?

The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot

Choose the Better

Mary and Martha had made choices. It seems that Martha may have chosen a menu that was too elaborate. A simple one would have sufficed, and left her time to sit down with Jesus and Mary. Mary’s choice was better.

Sometimes our difficulty arises from unreasonable expectations ---of ourselves, of what we can accomplish in a given time, or of others, of their abilities and temperaments. We stew over failure (again ---ours or others’) instead of quietly giving it over to Christ, thanking Him for His strength in place of our weakness, and then simply going on in peace.

“O Lord, make us, we implore Thee, so to love Thee that Thou mayest be to us a Fire of Love purifying and not destroying” (Christina Rossetti).

The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot