I seek the lessons God wants to teach me, and that means that I ask why.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of seeking understanding and lessons from life's challenges and experiences.
Elisabeth Elliot highlights the value of inquiry in personal growth and spiritual development. By questioning the circumstances we encounter, we open ourselves up to learning and divine guidance, transforming challenges into opportunities for wisdom and insight.
In practice
In a speech about personal development during a workshop.
We are not asked to SEE," said Amy. "Why need we when we KNOW?" We know--not the answer to the inevitable Why, but the incontestable fact that it is for the best. "It is an irreparable loss, but is it faith at all if it is 'hard to trust' when things are entirely bewildering?
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.
What sort of world might it have been if Eve had refused the servants offer and had said to him instead, βlet me not be like God. Let me be what I was made to be - let me be a woman'?
Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship ''in spirit and in truth.'' Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them.
Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands.
If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd.
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Mindfulness is a quality that's always there. It's an illusion that there's a meditation and post-meditation period, which I always find amusing, because you're either mindful or you're not.
O you, who spends his lifetime disobeying his Lord, no one amongst your enemies is wicked to you more than you are to yourself
Good habits are not made on birthdays, nor Christian character at the new year. The vision may dawn, the dream may waken, the heart may leap with a new inspiration on some mountain-top, but the test, the triumph, is at the foot of the mountain, on the level plain. The workshop of character is every-day life. The uneventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is won or lost.
You forgive yourself for every failure because you are trying to do the right thing. God knows that and you know it. Nobody else may know it.
I'm naturally an optimist, but my basis for hope is rooted in my understanding of human nature.
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