"Everything if given to God can become your gateway to joy." Elisabeth Elliot
As this series closes, I wanted to choose a quote that really had special meaning. This quote reminded me of the voice of Elisabeth Elliot that I listened to everyday as as a 20 something woman on her program, "Gateway to Joy." I was a young mom and in the first years of serving in the pastoral ministry, trying to adapt to the role of pastor's wife. There were incredible changes in my life and I needed the wisdom of a godly woman. For me, it was the words of Elisabeth Elliot coming through my kitchen radio.
She often talked about the spiritual discipline of surrender. It was a hard act of obedience and she acknowledged the struggle. She illustrated it through her own life experiences. In the little things of life and the enormous ones. She shared ways she had to do this in her courtship with her first husband. She shared about leaving the comforts of home to attend school and later as a missionary in South America. Each stage of her life brought moments where surrender or giving up control was vital. In this call to obedience she emphasized God's authority over her life.
This is exactly the kind of teaching I needed. As my life went in a new direction, I needed to trust God for many aspects of it. This included giving up control. It required receiving the things God had given. There was a call to support my husband as he was the church planting pastor in rural community. I was now a mom and there were the sacrifices that every new mother has and it lasts a long time. When the excitement and newness wore off, it wasn't fun on many days. I knew some scripture on this topic but I had to choose whether to obey it.
Galatians 2:20
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (I had memorized this a few years before)
Luke 9:23-24
And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
I knew these verses but it was so helpful to have a godly voice show me by her example how to apply them when I didn't want to but knew it was what God desired. It was the encouragement to take a faith step to obey because it was what God wanted. It was right. Obedience comes first, then the blessing. Sometimes the blessing is in different forms but one type is always there. It is joy. God gives joy as pride, self promotion, selfishness and my way is surrendered to Him. There is joy that comes from obedience to God's Word.
Luke 11:28 But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I can attest that as I have sought to give things to God (very imperfectly) he has brought joy. This is true in many things but my surrender In the acceptance of autism in our home has shaped me in such a dramatic way. He has enabled me to experience such joy. Joy in each breakthrough that I would take for granted with another child. Joy in the opportunity that God has given our church with special needs ministry. Without the struggle of autism, I would never realized the spiritual opportunity that special needs ministry brings. I would never of been able to see the joy of a family affected by disability that is able to come to church for the first time in years. Truly, joy often has come to me through struggle of relinquishing things to the Lord!
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