Wisdom from Elisabeth Elliot

If you know me very well at all, then you would know that two of my favorite authors are Elisabeth Elliot and Joyce Meyer. The funny thing is that I never cared much about what either of these women wrote until after my divorce. I used to not "get" E. Elliot - People would recommend her to me, but I always thought she was "a bit much" - now, as I read her writings from a new perspective, her wisdom astounds me. If you don't know much about her life, she was the wife of missionary Jim Elliot, who was murdered by the very tribe that he and his friends were trying to minister to. Elisabeth, who had just recently had a child with Jim, did not run away to America crying and questioning God. Instead, she allowed God to use her in her new-found circumstances, trusting Him that He had a larger plan for her life. E. Elliot, with her amazing faith, stayed, as a single mom, where her husband had been murdered and eventually ended up living WITH the very tribe that had killed him, leading many of them to Christ. She is truly amazing. When I read devotions she has written, I know that she is not writing them from a "warm fuzzy" point of view, just reciting things she wished she believed, but she is writing them through real, raw experience and pain. Anyway, every morning I get an "Elisabeth Elliot" devotion in my Inbox through Back to the Bible Daily Devotions and rarely does it fail to minister to me that day. If you have a hard time finding time for a morning devotion but always seem to find time to check your E-mail, then I recommend that you pick one of these morning devotions to receive daily by E-mail. It will start your morning off the right way!
This morning, E. Elliot's devotion was just so awesome to me because it went along so much with my last post, so I had to copy it and paste it on here. I hope it will encourage you like it did me!

Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: Keep A Quiet Heart
Scripture Reference: Ephesians 1:11 Luke 1:35 Psalm 131:1-2 Deuteronomy 30:11-14 Job 42:3

The Incarnation is a Thing Too Wonderful

...When the angel Gabriel told Mary, "You will be with child and give birth to a son," she had a simple question about the natural: How can this be, since I am a virgin?!
The answer had to do not with the natural but with something far more mysterious --something, in fact, entirely supernatural: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35, NIV). That was too wonderful, and Mary was silent. She had no question about the supernatural. She was satisfied with God's answer.
The truth about the Incarnation is a thing too wonderful for us. Who can fathom what really took place first in a virgin's womb in Nazareth and then in a stable in Bethlehem!
At the end of the book of Job, instead of answering his questions, God revealed to Job the mystery of Who He was. Then Job despised himself. "I have uttered what I did not understand,/ things too wonderful for me, which I did not know" (Job 42:3, RSV).
In one of David's "songs of ascents" he wrote, "My heart is not proud, O Lord,/ my eyes are not haughty;/ I do not concern myself with great matters/ or things too wonderful for me./ But I have stilled and quieted my soul; / like a weaned child with its mother,/ like a weaned child is my soul within me" (Psalm 131:1,2, NIV).
A close and fretful inquiry into how spiritual things "work" is an exercise in futility. Even wondering how "natural" things are going to work if you bring God into them--how God will answer a prayer for money, for example, or how your son-in-law is going to find a house for eight in southern California (on a pastor's salary) is sometimes an awful waste of energy. God knows how. Why should I bother my head about it if I've turned it over to Him? If the Word of the Lord to us is that we are "predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with his purpose" (Ephesians 1:11, NIV), we may apprehend this fact by faith alone. By believing that God means just what He says, and by acting upon the word (faith always requires action), we apprehend it--we take hold of it, we make it our own. We cannot make it our own by mere reason--"I don't see how such-and-such an incident can possibly have anything to do with any divine 'plan.'"
Why should we see how! Is it not sufficient that we are told that it is so? We need not see. We need only believe and proceed on the basis of that assured fact.
Mary's acceptance of the angel's answer to her innocent question was immediate, though she could not imagine the intricacies and mysteries of its working in her young virgin body. She surrendered herself utterly to God in trust and obedience.
Do you understand what is going on in the invisible realm of your life with God? Do you see how the visible things relate to the hidden Plan and Purpose? Probably not. As my second husband Addison Leitch used to say, "You can't unscrew the Inscrutable." But you do see at least one thing, maybe a very little thing, that He wants you to do. "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult [other translations say too hard, too wonderful] for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven.... nor is it beyond the sea.... no, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it" (Deuteronomy 30:11-14, NIV).
Let it suffice you, as it sufficed Mary, to know that God knows. If it's time to work, get on with your job. If it's time to go to bed, go to sleep in peace. Let the Lord of the Universe do the worrying.
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Lord, I cannot see or understand how you will work all things in my life together for good, but I WILL believe it because your Word says so and your Word is Truth. I will base my trust and my joy not on what I see, but on what you have promised in your Word. You, God, are Light and in you there is no darkness at all, not in any way (1 John 1:5). I trust in you Lord with ALL my heart and I will NOT rely on my own understanding (Prov 3:5), but instead I will trust only, wholly, solely in You and WHO YOU ARE, as revealed in Your Word. In Jesus's name - Amen.