Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth Elliot has unknowingly been one of my mentors for many years now. Her writing invades my heart and soul every time I read it, because she writes with the ink of suffering, wisdom, and breathtaking intimacy with the Lord. Here are some of her quotes that I stumbled upon.

"To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. And the cross always entails loss."

-These Strange Ashes

"Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next."

-Quest for Love: True Stories of Passion and Purity

"One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy."

-Secure in the Everlasting Arms

"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."

"If we hold tightly to anything given to us unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used we stunt the growth of the soul. What God gives us is not necessarily "ours" but only ours to offer back to him, ours to relinguish, ours to lose, ours to let go of, if we want to be our true selves. Many deaths must go into reaching our maturity in Christ, many letting goes."

-Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

"I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts. Its easy to talk oneself into a decision that has no permanence – easier sometimes than to wait patiently."

-Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

"Where does your security lie? Is God your refuge, your hiding place, your stronghold, your shepherd, your counselor, your friend, your redeemer, your saviour, your guide? If He is, you don't need to search any further for security."

"Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. This was the proof of His love – that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary’s cross, though “legions of angels” might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us- not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process."

"When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him."

"The will of God is not something you add to your life. It’s a course you choose. You either line yourself up with the Son of God…or you capitulate to the principle which governs the rest of the world."

"It is God to whom and with whom we travel, and while He is the end of our journey, He is also at every stopping place."

"We never know what God has up His sleeve. You never know what might happen; you only know what you have to do now."

And here's a wonderful quote from Origen:

"If we see some admirable work of human art, we are at once eager to investigate the nature, the manner, the end of its production; and the contemplation of the works of God stirs us with an incomparably greater longing to learn the principles, the method, the purpose of creation. This desire, this passion, has without doubt been implanted in us by God. And as the eye seeks light, as our body craves food, so our mind is impressed with the... natural desire to know the truth of God and the causes of what we observe. " -Origen (A.D. 185-254)