April 20, 2007 5:16 AM
Elisabeth Elliot on faith
Is Faith Easy?
A young man asked me last night if it was easier to trust God here in this country, in this comfortable house, than it was "down where all the disasters were," meaning, I suppose, in the jungle. No, I told him, you live by faith wherever you are. The house was robbed last week--a small reminder that all that I am and have belongs to the Lord, to do with as He chooses. There are enough "disasters" anywhere to keep one trusting God. In the jungle there is the immanent presence of snakes, vampires, scorpions, electric eels, etc.--to say nothing of savages' spears. In Hamilton there are thieves, the possibility of fire, plumbing or electrical breakdowns, and hanging over us at all times threats of war, totalitarianism, secular humanism, economic collapse, cancer, not to mention the "small" emergencies which can bring our best-laid plans to a halt.
"I have become absolutely convinced that neither death nor life...neither what happens today nor what may happen tomorrow has any power to separate us from the love of God" (Rom 8:38-39 JBP). So wrote Paul, whose life did not represent a series of events in which we would say it was "easy to trust." It was not easy. It was necessary. A life free from suffering would be a life in which faith in God would be a mere frill. A human life, on the contrary, is one in which faith is a necessity. Only a fool tries to do without it..
As always, I'd like to encourage you to include Elisabeth Elliot in your morning reading. She gives you a lot to think about during the day. Subscribe to her daily devotions here.
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Comments
Thank you I will
Posted by: momoffour | April 20, 2007 8:25 AM
I absolutely LOVE Elisabeth Elliot. I call her one of my mentors even though she has only mentored me through her books and tapes.
~Jody
Posted by: Jody | April 20, 2007 9:21 AM
I think faith is harder in rich industrialized countries. People don't feel like they need God for the physical necessities, and there are many more distractions to keep them from asking the big questions. Also, since we are so educated we often think we have all the answers and that God isn't needed to answer any of them.
Posted by: paigeu | April 20, 2007 11:09 PM
Paige, I think you are so right. I once saw an African man interviewed about the vibrancy of the Christian faith on his continent and he said that when you live in a country where technology is so unreliable and where you are so helpless a lot of the time, your faith is greater because you are so dependent on God to see you through each day.
Posted by: barbara | April 21, 2007 6:42 AM
