WOW #3

I've been reading "Keep A Quiet Heart" by Elisabeth Elliot, and I wanted to include today just quotes from that book, whether hers or others whom she quotes in the book.  Enjoy!

A cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of water, no matter how suddenly jarred. -- Amy Carmichael

Several Ways to Make Yourself Miserable

1. Count your troubles, name them one by one—at the breakfast table, if anybody will listen, or as soon as possible thereafter.

2. Worry every day about something.  Don’t let yourself get out of practice.  It won’t add a cubit to your stature but it might burn a few calories.

3. Pity yourself.  If you do enough of this, nobody else will have to do it for you.

4. Devise clever but decent ways to serve God and mammon.  After all, a man’s gotta live.

5. Make it your business to find out what the Joneses are buying this year and where they’re going.  Try to do them at least one better even if you have to take out another loan to do it.

6. Stay away from absolutes.  It’s what’s right for you that matters.  Be your own person and don’t allow yourself to get hung up on what others expect of you.

7. Make sure you get your rights.  Never mind other people’s.  You have your life to live, they have theirs.

8. Don’t fall into any compassion traps—the sort of situation where people can walk all over you.  If you get too involved in other people’s troubles, you may neglect your own.

9. Don’t let Bible reading and prayer get in the way of what’s really relevant—things like TV and newspapers.  Invisible things are eternal.  You want to stick with the visible ones—they’re where it’s at now.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

 

Father, let our faithful mind
Rest, on Thee alone inclined;
Every anxious thoughts repress,
Keep our souls in perfect peace.
-- Charles Wesley

Human life is full of trouble, which doesn’t come from the dust, said Job’s friend Eliphaz, nor does it sprout from the ground.  Man is born to trouble.  Compare your list of troubles with one famous man’s:

1. He had a difficult childhood

2. Less than one year of formal schooling

3. Failed in business as age 31

4. Defeated for legislature at 32

5. Failed again in business at 33

6. Elected to the legislature at 34

7. His fiancée died when he was 35

8. Defeated for speaker at 38

9. Defeated for electorate at 40

10. At 42 married a woman who became a burden, not a help

11. Only one of four sons lived past age 18

12. Defeated for congress at 43

13. Elected to congress at 46

14. Defeated for congress at 48

15. Defeated for senate at 55

16. Defeated for vice president at 56

17. Defeated for senate at 58

18. Finally elected president.

He was Abraham Lincoln, of course.  When I look at his list of setbacks, I wonder if I’ve ever had a problem.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

How To Forfeit the Peace of God

1. Resent God’s ways.

2. Worry as much as possible.

3. Pray only about thing you can’t manage by yourself.

4. Refuse to accept what God gives.

5. Look for peace elsewhere than in Him.

6. Try to rule your own life.

7. Doubt God’s word.

8. Carry all your cares.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

How To Not Forfeit the Peace of God

1. “Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165 KJV).  “Circumstances are the expression of God’s will,” wrote Bishop Handley Moule.

2. “Don’t worry about anything whatever” (Philippians 4:6, PHILLIPS).

3. “In everything make your requests known to God in prayer and petition with thanksgiving.  Then the peace of God…will guard your hearts” (Philippians 4:6, 7, NEB).

4. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me…and you will find rest” (Matthew 11:29, NIV).

5. “Peace is My parting gift to you, My own peace, such as the world cannot give” (John 14:27, NEB).

6. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15, NIV).

7. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13, KJV).

8. “Cast all your cares on Him for you are His charge” (1 Peter 5:7, NEB).

-- Elisabeth Elliot

Measure thy life by loss instead of gain;

Not by the wine drunk but by the wine poured forth;

For love’s strength standeth in love’s sacrifice,

And whoso suffers most hath most to give…

-- Ugo Bassi

“But these strange ashes, Lord, this nothingness,

This baffling sense of loss?”

Son, was the anguish of My stripping less

Upon the torturing cross?

Was I not brought into the dust of death,

A worm, and no man, I;

Yea, turned to ashes by the vehement breath

Of fire, on Calvary?

O son beloved, this is thy heart’s desire:

This, and no other thing

Follows the fall of the Consuming Fire

On the burnt offering.

Go on and taste the joy set high, afar,—

No joy like that to thee;

See how it lights the way like some great star.

Come now, and follow Me.

-- Amy Carmichael

A Prayer Before Trial

O merciful God, be Thou unto me

A strong Tower of defence,

I humbly entreat Thee.

Give me grace to await Thy leisure,

And patiently to bear

What Thou doest unto me;

Nothing doubting or mistrusting

Thy goodness towards me;

For Thou knowest what is good for me

Better than I do.

Therefore do with me in all things

What Thou wilt;

Only arm me, I beseech Thee,

With Thine armor,

That I may stand fast;

Above all things taking to me

The shield of faith;

Praying always that I may

Refer myself wholly to Thy will,

Abiding Thy pleasure, and comforting myself

In those troubles which it shall please Thee

To send me, seeing such troubles are

Profitable for me; and I am

Assuredly persuaded that all Thou doest

Cannot but be well; and unto Thee

Be all honor and glory.  Amen.

-- Lady Jane Grey