What Was The Question?

Elisabeth Elliot:

"Christ is the Answer" has been a wall motto, and, more recently, a bumper sticker. Somebody added, in small print, "What was the question?"

In the final analysis, it does not matter what question we are asking. All questions come under one of three headings:

1. Way--we need guidance
2. Truth--we need a norm
3. Life--we need sustenance.
Jesus said, "I am" all of these things. Let us bring everything that baffles us into his presence, holding it up before Him by faith. In that Light, the look of things will slowly begin to change, and as we humble ourselves to receive the true answer, our eyes will be opened. We learn to know Christ, then, as we walk in his way, obey his truth, and live his life. He Himself, a living, loving Person, is our answer.

What Fits Us For Service

My mentor, Elisabeth Elliot, one wrote, "Is there any Christian who does not long for some special experience, vision, or feeling of the presence of God? This morning it seemed to me that unless I could claim such I was merely going through motions of prayer, meditation, reading; that the book I am writing on discipline will prove to be nothing but vanity and a striving after wind. The Lord brought yesterday's word to mind again with this emphasis: it is not any experience, no matter how exciting, not any vision, however vivid and dazzling, not any feeling, be it ever so deep that fits me for service. It is the power of the blood of Christ. I am "made holy by the single unique offering of the body of Jesus Christ" (Heb 10:10), and by his blood "fit for the service of the living God." My spiritual numbness cannot cancel that--the blood will never lose its power."


 

The Answer Is Always Enough

Elisabeth Elliot's Daily Devotional

3/6/13

We often hope to be spared trouble or suffering, and surely it is legitimate to pray that we may be ("Lead us not into temptation" is a prayer Jesus taught us to pray). Jesus Himself asked the Father to take away the "cup"; Paul prayed for the removal of his "thorn." In both cases, the answer was no. But God did not give a mere no--He sent what had not been asked: strength to endure. An angel was immediately dispatched to Gethsemane, "bringing him strength" (Lk 22:43 NEB). His suffering did not cease--in fact, "in anguish of spirit He prayed the more urgently and his sweat was like clots of blood" {Lk 22:44).

The apostle was suffering in some physical way, it seems. The thing was called "a messenger of Satan," and he did well to ask for its removal. The answer was no--but something unasked was given: grace. There was plenteous grace to enable Paul to endure. What God gives in answer to our prayers will always be the thing we most urgently need, and it will always be sufficient.