Heart Comfort

In light of my post a few days ago about Psalm 40, yesterday's devotional from Elisabeth Elliot was very timely and spoke truth so clearly. I would like to share this with you as well - let it encourage you in whatever struggle you have today. God is good and He has wonderful plans for your life - but you must trust Him with your life. Don't trust in your circumstances, because we live in a sinful world that is cursed with death - suffering is inevitable and your circumstances will constantly change. You must then trust in the character of God, because He is unchangeable. He is to be worshipped for His greatness, His power, His sovereign control over all His creation, His hatred toward sin and evil, His perfect and good nature, His mercy toward sinful men and women like you and me, His discipline and correction of His children, and for His desire to reconcile us to Himself through the sacrifice and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

He is worthy of our worship in every moment of our lives.

Let Ms. Elliot's wisdom encourage you today... and make a point of praising God today for who He is.

"To want what we don't have is impatience, for one thing, and it is to mistrust God. Is He not in complete control of all circumstances, events, and conditions? If some are beyond His control, He is not God.

A spirit of resistance cannot wait on God. I believe it is this spirit which is the reason for some of our greatest sufferings. Opposing the workings of the Lord in and through our "problems" only exacerbates them. It is here and now that we must win our victories or suffer defeats. Spiritual victories are won in the quiet acceptance of ordinary events, which are God's "bright servants," standing all around us.

Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands. "Peace I leave with you; I do not give to you as the world gives" (John 14:27, NEB). What sort of peace has He to give us? A peace which was constant in the midst of ceaseless work (with few visible results), frequent interruptions, impatient demands, few physical comforts; a peace which was not destroyed by the arguments, the faithlessness, and hatred of the people. Jesus had perfect confidence in His Father, whose will He had come to accomplish. Nothing touched Him without His Father's permission. Nothing touches me without my Father's permission. Can I not then wait patiently? He will show the way.

If I am willing to be still in my Master's hand, can I not then be still in everything? He's got the whole world in His hands! Never mind whether things come from God Himself or from people-- everything comes by His ordination or permission. If I mean to be obedient and submissive to the Lord because He is my Lord, I must not forget that whatever He allows to happen becomes, for me, His will at that moment. Perhaps it is someone else's sinful action, but if God allows it to affect me, He wills it for my learning. The need to wait is, for me, a form of chastening. God has to calm me down, make me shut up and look to Him for the outcome.

His message to me every day
Is wait, be still, trust, and obey.

And this brings me to the matter of counseling. Upon our return from a trip to England I found a pile of mail, so many letters asking me what to do about things, for example: a wife's critical spirit, unemployment, a wife who has abandoned husband and children, a single mother doing a job she hates, an unfaithful husband, a woman (who tells me she is Spirit-filled) having an affair with her pastor, a farmer who'd like a wife, a mother-in-law who is nasty to her daughter-in-law, a stepson who is angry because "we don't spend enough money on his children," a wife who snaps at her husband each time he tries to snuggle up, and a husband who "drinks like a fish, curses like a sailor, and says he loves God."

I wish I could write the same letter to everybody: Wait patiently for the Lord. He will turn to you and hear your cry. It is amazing how clear things become when we are still before Him, not complaining, not insisting on quick answers, only seeking to hear His word in the stillness, and to see things in His light. Few are willing to receive that sort of reply. 'Too simplistic' is the objection. One listener to my radio program, Gateway to Joy, wrote, 'I got so upset at what you were saying I ripped the earphones out and aid, 'I'll do what I want to do!'" But there are those who can say, 'This is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation' (Isaiah 25:9, KJV). Here are two testimonies:

'I've lost my mother, my brother, my husband, and my baby. My song is More Love to Thee, O Christ.'

'God picked up the scraps and pieces and made us whole--a whole woman, a whole man, a whole marriage.'"