A beautiful woman of faith, a true saint, fearlessly courageous, bold and devoted to her God, died this week. She was an early mentor of mine through books and audios, and her faithfulness has left an indelible impression in my life.
Elisabeth walked through some dark places and maintained that God used it all to make her more like Him. Her first husband, Jim, was brutally killed by the tribe he sought to minister to, but his death opened the door for Elisabeth to bravely push open, bringing many of them to Christ.
She remarried, but three years later, lost her second husband to cancer. Throughout her life, she has remained a steadfast soldier.
You will not regret reading any of Elisabeth Elliot’s books.
Let the Lord speak through her words as her legacy reaches into our generation, bringing glory to His name.
“The routines of housework and of mothering may be seen as a kind of death, and it is appropriate that they should be, for they offer the chance, day after day, to lay down one’s life for others. Then they are no longer routines. By being done with love and offered up to God with praise, they are thereby hallowed as the vessels of the tabernacle were hallowed–not because they were different from other vessels in quality or function, but because they were offered to God. A mother’s part in sustaining the life of her children and making it pleasant and comfortable is no triviality. It calls for self-sacrifice and humility, but it is the route, as was the humiliation of Jesus, to glory.”
“The world looks for happiness through self-assertion. The Christian knows that joy is found in self-abandonment. “If a man will let himself be lost for My sake,” Jesus said, “he will find his true self.” A Christian woman’s true freedom lies on the other side of a very small gate—humble obedience—but that gate leads out into a largeness of life undreamed of by the liberators of the world, to a place where the God-given differentiation between the sexes is not obfuscated but celebrated, where our inequalities are seen as essential to the image of God, for it is in male and female, in male as male and female as female, not as two identical and interchangeable halves, that the image is manifested.” From “The Essence of Femininity: A Personal Perspective”
“I have one desire now – to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it.”
“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.”
“We are women, and my plea is Let me be a woman, holy through and through, asking for nothing but what God wants to give me, receiving with both hands and with all my heart whatever that is.”
“God is God. Because he is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Of one thing I am perfectly sure: God’s story never ends with ‘ashes.”
“One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.”
“The principles of gain through loss, of joy through sorrow, of getting by giving, of fulfillment by laying down, of life out of death is what the Bible teaches, and the people who have believed it enough to live it out in simple, humble, day-by-day practice are people who have found the gain, the joy, the getting, the fulfillment, the life.”
5 comments
I once heard her speak at my chapel when I was in college in the late 70s and she’s the only speaker I rememeber since her words struck a chord in me. I love the quotes you posted! I also love this quote, “The routines of housework and of mothering may be seen as a kind of death, and it is appropriate that they should be, for they offer the chance, day after day, to lay down one’s life for others. Then they are no longer routines. By being done with love and offered up to God with praise, they are thereby hallowed as the vessels of the tabernacle were hallowed–not because they were different from other vessels in quality or function, but because they were offered to God. A mother’s part in sustaining the life of her children and making it pleasant and comfortable is no triviality. It calls for self-sacrifice and humility, but it is the route, as was the humiliation of Jesus, to glory.”
Oh goodness, I’ll have to add that one. Sooo good.
Such precious words from a precious saint. Thank you for all of those carefully-chosen quotes, Kelly! When I read she was an early mentor of yours, it did not surprise me.
I am reading Through gates of splendor right now, had started it before she passed. it is fascinating.
My son´s Abeka reader also has some chapters about the auca mission and about nate saint.
i heard her in the radio too sometimes. she was sober, wise, practical, had her feet on the earth, and talked about very different topics regarding christian life.
What i don’t realize is in truth how you’re no longer actually a lot more smartly-liked than you might be right now. You’re so intelligent. You understand therefore considerably when it comes to this matter, made me individually believe it from so many various angles. Its like women and men aren’t fascinated except it’s one thing to do with Woman gaga! Your personal stuffs nice. All the time take care of it up!