Elisabeth Elliot Quotes

But, in the words of a Portuguese proverb, "God writes straight with crooked lines", and He is far more interested in getting us where He wants us to be than we are in getting there. He does not discuss things with us. He leads us faithfully and plainly as we trust Him and simply do the next thing. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

If you are married, then accept that. Accept the husband that God has given you. If you are single, accept your singleness and take it as if today was the last day of your life. Don't be looking constantly to the future. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

When you don't know what to do, do the thing in front of you. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

How long Lord must I wait?
Nevermind child, trust me. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

New Year's Day is a good time to fix one's eyes on the only One who knows what the year is to hold. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Does God ask us to do what is beneath us? This question will never trouble us again if we consider the Lord of heaven taking a towel and washing feet. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Wait. Wait on God. Keep your mouth shut. Don't expect anything until the declaration is clear and forthright...resist the temptation to trifle with other people's feelings. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

TO understand the meaning of womanhood we have to start with God. If He is indeed "Creator of all things visible and invisible" He is certainly in charge of all things, visible and invisible, stupendous and miniscule, magnificent and trivial. God has to be in charge of details if He is going to be in charge of the overall design. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

All our problems are theological ones, William Temple said. All of them have to do with our relationship to God and his to us, and this is precisely why it makes sense to come to God with them. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The world cries for men who are strong; strong in conviction, strong to lead, to stand, to suffer. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

I must teach you to long for something better...For my uncontrollable longings for this man, Lord --- Your strength. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

One morning I was reading the story of Jesus' feeding of the five thousand. The disciples could find only five loaves of bread and two fishes. 'Let me have them,' said Jesus. He asked for all. He took them, said the blessing, and broke them before He gave them out. I remembered what a chapel speaker ... had said: 'If my life is broken when given to Jesus, it is because pieces will feed a multitude, while a loaf will satisfy only a little lad.' ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Must we always comment on life? Can it not simply be lived in the reality of Christ's terms of contact with the Father, with joy and peace, fear and love full to the fingertips in their turn, without incessant drawing of lessons and making of rules? ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

I need the wisdom, reasoning, and apologetics of C. S. Lewis, though some of his theological beliefs are different from mine. I need the preaching and charisma of Charles Spurgeon, though his view of baptism is different from mine. I need the resurrection vision of N. T. Wright and the theology of Jonathan Edwards, though their views on church government are different from mine. I need the passion and prophetic courage of Martin Luther King Jr., the cultural intelligence of Soong-Chan Rah, and the Confessions of St. Augustine, though their ethnicities are different from mine. I need the justice impulse and communal passion of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, though his nationality is different from mine. I need the spiritual thirst and love drive of Brennan Manning and the prophetic wit of G. K. Chesterton, though both are Roman Catholics and I am a Protestant. I need the hymns and personal holiness of John and Charles Wesley, though some of their doctrinal distinctives are different from mine. I need the glorious weakness of Joni Eareckson Tada, the spirituality of Marva Dawn, the trusting perseverance of Elisabeth Elliot, the long-suffering spirit of Amy Carmichael, the transparency of Rebekah Lyons, the thankfulness of Ann Voskamp, the Kingdom vision of Amy Sherman, and the integrity of Patti Sauls, though their gender is different from mine. As St. Augustine reputedly said, "In nonessentials, liberty." To this we might add, "In nonessentials, open-minded receptivity." We Christians m ~ Scott Sauls

There is a whole world of difference between those who look only for their own happiness in this world and those who know their true happiness lies in the will of God. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Choices will continually be necessary and
let us not forget
possible. Obedience to God is always possible. It is a deadly error to fall into the notion that when feelings are extremely strong we can do nothing but act on them. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

God will not protect you from anything that will make you more like Jesus. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

We are not adrift in chaos. To me that is the most fortifying, the most stabilizing, the most peace-giving thing that I know about anything in the universe. Every time that things have seemingly fallen apart in my life, I have gone back to those things that do not change. Nothing in the universe can ever change those facts. He loves me. I am not at the mercy of chance. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

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. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Jesus loved the will of His Father. He embraced the limitations, the necessities, the conditions, the very chains of His humanity as He walked and worked here on earth, fulfilling moment by moment His divine commission and the stern demands of His incarnation. Never was there a word or even a look of complaint. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Unless a man is prepared to ask a woman to be his wife, what right has he to claim her exclusive attention? Unless she has been asked to marry him, why would a sensible woman promise any man her exclusive attention? If, when the time has come for a commitment, he is not man enough to ask her to marry him, she should give him no reason to presume that she belongs to him. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Prayer lays hold of God's plan and becomes the link between His will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit's prayer. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

It is in our acceptance of what is given that God gives Himself. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Faith's most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

If all struggles and sufferings were eliminated, the spirit would no more reach maturity than would the child. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

St. Augustine said, "The very pleasures of human life men acquire by difficulties." There are times when the entire arrangement of our existence is disrupted and we long then for just one ordinary day - seeing our ordinary life as greatly desirable, even wonderful, in the light of the terrible disruption that has taken place. Difficulty opens our eyes to pleasures we had taken for granted. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Have we the humility to thank our Father for the gift of pain? ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Either we are adrift in chaos or we are individuals, created, loved, upheld and placed purposefully, exactly where we are. Can you believe that? Can you trust God for that? ~ Elisabeth Elliot

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. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The Indians had become people to me - they were no longer my "field." While I had once declared them to be my equals, I now regarded myself as theirs. Instead of saying, "Oh, you are as good as I - let me help you," I now said, "I am as poor as you. God help us all. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

God's command 'Go ye, and preach the gospel to every creature' was the categorical imperative. The question of personal safety was wholly irrelevant. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Nothing that comes to me is void of divine purpose. In seeking to see the whole with God's eyes, we can find the peace which human events so often destroy. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

There is only one classroom in which to learn: 1. The work of God. 2. The will of God. 3. The trustworthiness of God. 4. The presence of God. The classroom is where I am now. This is the place appointed by God for my instruction and sanctification - even here: 1. where it seems God is doing nothing (He is, in fact, at work in unseen ways); 2. where His will seems obscure or frightening (He will surely give me peace at last); 3. where He isn't doing what I want Him to (He is doing something better - preparing bread for me when what I asked was in actual fact a stone; or perhaps, He is doing the very thing I prayed for, but in a way incomprehensible to me); 4. where He is most absent (yes, even there His promise holds: I will never leave you or forsake you. My faith must size that written word regardless of the enemy's taunt, "You've been abandoned."). ~ Elisabeth Elliot

It seems disrespectful to me to see ladies in church in very short skirts or skimpy, sleeveless tops. I would imagine that it could be distracting to men who are trying to keep their minds on God. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The disciplined Christian will be very careful what sort of counsel he seeks from others. Counsel that contradicts the written Word is ungodly counsel. Blessed is the man that walketh not in that. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

He says no in order that He may, in some way we cannot imagine, say yes. All His ways with us are merciful. His meaning is always love. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

I am convinced that the human heart hungers for constancy. In forfeiting the sanctity of sex by casual, nondiscriminatory "making out" and "sleeping around," we forfeit something we cannot well do without. There is dullness, monotony, sheer boredom in all of life when virginity and purity are no longer protected and prized. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Nothing has done more damage to the Christian view of life than the hideous notion that those who are truly spiritual have lost all interest in the world and its beauties. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Eternity shall be at once a great eye-opener and a great mouth-shutter. -Jim Elliot ~ Elisabeth Elliot

If it were not for uncertainties, we would have no need to walk by faith. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to perhaps eighty percent of her expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it by very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the Church. And the wife is there to bless and support and help him. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

She is free not by disobeying the rules but by obeying them. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A wedding is a celebration of marriage, of an institution ordained by God at the creation of man, to be entered into with solemnity as well as with joy. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Our Heavenly Healer often has to hurt us in order to heal us. We sometimes fail to recognize His mighty love in this, yet we are firmly held always in the Everlasting Arms. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Let not him who accepts light in an instant despise him who gropes months in shadows. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Things which sound like platitudes become vital, living and powerful when you have to learn them in dark tunnels. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

But God has set no traps for us. Quite the contrary. He has summoned us to the only true and full freedom. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

God gives all
God asks all ~ Elisabeth Elliot

It is through the tender austerity of our troubles that the Son of Man comes knocking. In every event He seeks an entrance to my heart, yes, even in my most helpless, futile, fruitless moments. The very cracks and empty crannies of my life, my perplexities and hurts and botched-up jobs, He wants to fill with Himself, His joy, His life ... He urges me to learn of Him: 'I am gentle and humble in heart. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Loneliness comes over us sometimes as a sudden tide. It is one of the terms of our humanness, and, in a sense, therefore, incurable. Yet I have found peace in my loneliest times not only through acceptance of the situation, but through making it an offering to God, who can transfigure it into something for the good of others. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Discipline is the wholehearted yes to the call of God. When I know myself called, summoned, addressed, taken possession of, known, acted upon, I have heard the Master. I put myself gladly, fully, and forever at His disposal, and to whatever He says my answer is yes. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

O God, I confess I am not worthy to rock that little babe or wash its diapers, or to be entrusted with the care of a child and its mother. How is it that I without any merit have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? Oh, how gladly will I do so. Though the duty should be even more insignificant and despised, neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labor will distress me for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Are we so childish (I do not say childlike) as to think that a God who could scheme a Jesus-plan would lead poor pilgrims into situations they could not bear? ~ Elisabeth Elliot

If she had been born a hundred years later, she would very likely have been encouraged to be angry, told she had a right to express her anger and her sorrow and her bewilderment and her rage, and generally to disintegrate. These were not the expectations of her friends and family. Nothing could have been further from her expectations of herself. Instead, she threw herself into serving others. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

In whatever God does in the course of our lives, he gives us, through the experience, some power to help others. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A quiet heart is content with what God gives. It is enough. All is grace. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Don't dig up in doubt what you planted in faith. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Most of the time we like the idea of our own freedom. There are times when we do not at all like the idea of the freedom of others. If we suffer because of their freedom, let us remember that they suffer because of ours. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

If you take being a father seriously, you'll know that you're not big enough for the job, not by yourself ... Being a father will put you on your knees if nothing else ever did. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Fear arises when we imagine that everything depends on us. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

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. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

If he had loved her he would have pursued her. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

God has promised to supply our needs. What we don't have now we don't need now. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

God never witholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God's refusals are always merciful
"severe mercies" at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A young woman asked the great preacher Charles Spurgeon if it was possible to reconcile God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. "Young woman," said he. "You don't reconcile friends ~ Elisabeth Elliot

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. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Cold prayers, like cold suitors, are seldom effective in their aims. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The way you keep your house, the way you organize your time, the care you take in your personal appearance, the things you spend your money on, all speak loudly about what you believe. The beauty of thy peace shines forth in an ordered life. A disordered life speaks loudly of disorder in the soul. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

His enthusiasm and willingness to use what he learned made him get ahead in Spanish. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

In order to learn what it means to be a woman we must start with the One who made her. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Thanksgiving and Christmas then, for us who love God, are not mere time outs from work days. They are a celebration of the gift of work itself, days on which we celebrate work by declaring our freedom. In a manner of speaking we announce that on this one day we may rest from our work, and without pressure or guilt, we may be glad. A holiday is a holy day-meant for rejoicing in God. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Insistence that both lead means there won't be any dance. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Holiness has never been the driving force of the majority. It is, however, mandatory for anyone who wants to enter the kingdom. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The question is simply,'Who is your master?'Once that's settled, you ask whether any word have been spoken. If it has, you have your orders. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The Bible doesn't explain everything necessary for our intellectual satisfaction, but it explains everything necessary for our obediance. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A grandmother's special calling is to pray and to be a fellow worker in the battle in which her children or her grandchildren are engaged. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

I have one desire now - to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A man must at times be hard as nails: willing to face up to the truth about himself, and about the woman he loves, refusing compromise when compromise is wrong. But he must also be tender. No weapon will breach the armor of a woman's resentment like tenderness. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

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

Women still dream and hope, pin their emotions on some man who doesn't reciprocate, and end up in confusion. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Maturity starts with the willingness to give oneself. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

There is no need for faith where there is no consciousness of an element of risk. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A whole lot of what we call 'struggling' is simply delayed obedience. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Ordinary work, which is what most of us do, most of the time, is ordained by God every bit as much as is the extraordinary. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

And so it often is. Faith, prayer, and obedience are our requirements. We are not offered in exchange immunity and exemption from the world's woes. What we are offered has to do with another world altogether. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Action that is clearly right needs no justification. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Loneliness itself is material for sacrifice. The very longings themselves can be offered to Him who understands perfectly. The transformation into something He can use for the good of others takes place only when the offering is put into his hands. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

It is when we come to the Lord in our nothingness, our powerlessness and our helplessness that He then enables us to love in a way which, without Him, would be absolutely impossible. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

The ways of the world exalt themselves against God. They sometimes look rational and appealing to the most ernest disciple but Christ says to us then what He said to His disciples long ago, when many of them had given u pin disgust, "Do you also want to leave me?" If we answer as PEter did, "Lord to whom else shall we go? Your words are words of eternal life," our rebel thoughts are captured once more. The way of holiness is again visible. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

As writer Elisabeth Elliot phrased it, The fact that I am a woman does not make me a different kind of Christian, but the fact that I am a Christian does make me a different kind of woman. ~ Liz Curtis Higgs

If the life of a man or woman on earth is to bear the fragrance of heaven the winds of God must blow on that life, winds not always balmy from the south, but fierce winds from the north that chill the very marrow. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

George Macdonald said, 'If you knew what God knows about death you would clap your listless hands', but instead I find old people in North America just buying this whole youth obsession. I think growing older is a wonderful privilege. I want to learn to glorify God in every stage of my life. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

You can never lose what you have offered to Christ. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

We want to avoid suffering, death, sin, ashes. But we live in a world crushed and broken and torn, a world God Himself visited to redeem. We receive his poured-out life, and being allowed the high privilege of suffering with Him, may then pour ourselves out for others. ~ Elisabeth Elliot

A woman ought to be honest with a man who shows interest in her. ~ Elisabeth Elliot