WOW #5

I commit my soul to my gracious God and Saviour, who mercifully spared and preserved me, when I was an apostate, a blasphemer, and an infidel, and delivered me from that state of misery on the coast of Africa into which my obstinate wickedness had plunged me; and Who has been pleased to admit me, though most unworthy, to preach His glorious gospel.  I rely with humble confidence upon the atonement, and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, God and Man which I have often proposed to others, as the only foundation whereupon a sinner can build his hope, trusting that He will guard and guide me through the uncertain remainder of my life, and that He will then admit me into His presence in His heavenly kingdom. -- John Newton

And the face shines bright

With a glow of light

From His presence sent

Whom she loves to meet.

Yes, the face beams bright

With an inner light

As by day so by night,

In shade as in shine,

With a beauty fine,

That she wist not of,

From some source within,

      And above.

Still the face shines bright

With the glory-light

From the mountain height,

Where the resplendent sight

Of His face

Fills her view

And illumines in turn

First the few,

Then the wide race.

-- Unknown

Wherefore it is every profitable for us to have always before our eyes this sweet and comfortable sentence, and such-like, which sets out Christ truly and lively, that in our whole life, in all dangers, in the confessions of our faith before tyrants, and in the hour of death, we may boldly and with all confidence say: O law, thou hast no power over me, therefore dost thou accuse and condemn me in vain.  For I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom the Father sent into the world to redeem us miserable sinners oppressed with the tyranny of the law.  He gave His life, He shed His blood for me.  Therefore, feeling thy terrors and threatening, O law, I plunge my conscience in the wounds, blood, death, resurrection and victory of my Saviour, Christ.  Besides Him I will see nothing, hear nothing. -- Martin Luther

Upon Thy Word I rest

   Each pilgrim day.

This golden staff is best

   For all the way.

What Jesus Christ hath spoken,

   Cannot be broken!

Upon Thy Word I rest;

   So strong, so sure,

So full of comfort blest,

   So sweet, so pure:

The charter of salvation:

   Faith’s broad foundation.

Upon Thy Word I stand:

   That cannot die.

Christ seals it in my hand.

   He cannot lie.

Thy Word that faileth never:

   Abiding ever.

-- Frances Ridley Havergal

When there is real weakness, especially of the kind that surprises and humiliates us, it is our opportunity to learn what Paul had to learn through his “thorn”: the grace of God is all we need, for “…power comes to its full strength in weakness…” -- Elisabeth Elliot

If I am to love the Lord my God with all my mind, there will not be room in it for carnality, for pride, for anxiety, for the love of myself.  How can the mind be filled with the love of the Lord and have space left over for things like that? -- Elisabeth Elliot

To ask for the guidance of God is to make a choice, and this takes faith.  It must be faith of a far higher kind than the breezy “if I like what I see I’ll take it.”  It is the faith that has strength to wait for the rewards God holds, strength to believe they are worth waiting for, worth the price asked.  Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here: I trust Him.  This requires abandonment. We are no longer saying, “If I trust Him, He’ll give me such and such,” but, “I trust Him.  Let Him give me or withhold from me what He chooses.” -- Elisabeth Elliot

Lord, give to me a quiet heart

That does not ask to understand,

But confident steps forward in

The darkness guided by Thy hand.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

Jesus slept on a pillow in the midst of a raging storm. How could He?  The terrified disciples, sure that the next wave would send them straight to the bottom, shook Him awake with rebuke. How could He be so careless of their fate?

   He could because He slept in the calm assurance that His Father was in control.  His was a quiet heart.  We see Him move serenely through all the events of His life—when He was reviled, He did not revile in return.  When He knew that He would suffer many things and be killed in Jerusalem, He never deviated from His course.  He had set His face like flint. He sat at supper with one who would deny Him and another who would betray Him, yet He was able to eat with them, willing even to wash their feet.  Jesus in the unbroken intimacy of His Father’s love, kept a quiet heart. -- Elisabeth Elliot

Sin and despair like the sea waves cold

Threaten the soul with infinite loss;

Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold

Points to the refuge, the Mighty Cross.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.

What can avail to wash it away?

Look! there is flowing a crimson tide.

Whiter than snow you may be today.

-- Julia H. Johnston

None of us likes pain.  All of us wish at times we did not need to 'go through all this stuff.'  Let us settle it once and for all: we cannot know Christ and the power of His resurrection without the fellowship of His suffering. -- Elisabeth Elliot


A spirit of restlessness and resistance never waits, but one who believes he is loved with an everlasting love, and knows that underneath are the everlasting arms, will find strength and peace. -- Elisabeth Elliot


He is not all we would ask for (if we were honest), but it is precisely when we do not have what we would ask for, and only then, that we can clearly perceive His all-sufficiency.  It is when the sea is moonless that the Lord has become my Light. -- Elisabeth Elliot