If Faith Does Not Work Here…

We may be earnestly desiring to be obedient and holy. But we may be missing the fact that it is here, where we happen to be at this moment and not in another place or another time, that we may learn to love Him - here where it seems He is not at work, where His will seems obscure or frightening, where He is not doing what we expected Him to do, where He is most absent. Here and nowhere else is the appointed place. If faith does not go to work here, it will not go to work at all.

- Elisabeth Elliot.

The Gift of Place

It is always possible to do the will of God. In every place and time it is within our power to acquiesce in the will of God. Jesus comforted His disciples: 'Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you" (John 14:1-2). Who is finally responsible for our circumstances? Psalm 16:5 tells us: 'Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.'

We have the assurance-a calming and quieting one-that God in His infinite wisdom has placed us where we are. There are perhaps some factors which we would not happily have chosen. When Alexander Solzhenitsyn was in prison he wrote, 'How simple for me to live with You, O Lord! How easy to believe in You! When in confusion my should bares itself or bends, when the most wise can see no further than this night and do not know what tomorrow brings, You fill me with the clear certainty that You exist, and that you watch to see that all the paths of righteousness be not closed. From the heights of worldly glory I am astonished by the path through despair you have provided me, this path from which I have been worthy enough to reflect Your radiance to men. All that I will yet reflect You will grant me. And for that which I will not succeed in reflecting, You have appointed others.'

Let us never suppose that obedience is impossible or that holiness is meant only for a select few. Our Shepherd leads us in paths of righteousness-not for our name's sake but for His. He saw to it that in the midst of excruciating suffering those paths were not closed to Solzhenitsyn. They are not closed to us...

Our heavenly Father knows to place us where we may learn lessons impossible anywhere else. He has neither misplace nor displaced us. He assigns and designs according to His inscrutable wisdom-always for our blessing and conformity to the image of Christ. ..

-Elisbeth Elliot, Secure in the Everlasting Arms

Golden Chain of Mercies

One of my favorite authors is Elisabeth Elliot. I love her confident love of God's Sovereignty, no matter the circumstance. Scripture is her sure rock. I like her writing style and I always leave reading feeling encouraged and more in love with my Savior. This morning I was reading Secure in the Everlasting Arms. It's a book of small devotionals, compilations of articles and essays that she has written over the years. It's a very good book! Here's a very insightful quote I read this morning:

We have only this present moment. God does not usually give us previews of coming attractions. I can look back over many decades, remembering how worried I sometimes was, how bewildered at things God had permitted to happen, but no I see them as a golden chain of mercies, gifts from a merciful Father who, like the father Jesus described, would never give his son a snake if he asked for a fish. What looks to us like a good thing might actually ruin us. How thankful I am for God's withholdings, for His unfailing faithfulness.

Meddling with God's Business

We are meddling with God's business when we let all manner of imaginings loose, predicting disaster, contemplating possibilities instead of following, one day at a time, God's plain simple pathway. When we try to meet difficulties prematurely we have neither the light nor the strength for them yet. "As they days so shall they strength be" was Moses' blessing for Asher-in other words, your strength will equal your days. God knows how to apportion each one's strength according to that day's need, however great or small...Faithfulness today is the bet preparation for the demands of tomorrow.

-Elisabeth Elliot