Elisabeth Elliot: Is there someone listening to me today who feels that God has forsaken him? Has the heavenly fire departed? Your soul is cool, and you just want to pack it up and throw in the towel. That's when you're going to discover the real quality of your will.

Lisa Barry: If your soul has gotten cool, then it's no coincidence that you're listening to this program today. God desires that you return to him and rekindle the love that was once there. Aren't you glad that God doesn't just shoo us out when the going gets tough? Aren't you glad that he specializes in redeeming our failures even after we've trusted him for salvation?

He's committed to you for the long haul, and he wants you to be a living sacrifice that's why you're listening today. He's reaching out to you in love, so stay tuned to discover how to realign your will with God's again. That's what's coming up next on this Friday edition of Gateway To Joy. Here's Elisabeth.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love," that's what the Bible says, "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliot, continuing my talk today about the gift of tenacity. Yesterday, I talked about some of those hard unanswerable questions that we want to charge God with; and we want him to sort it all out for us so that we can look at it plainly and simply so that it's going to work for us.

But as I said yesterday, I don't understand it, not intellectually. But, of course, there are mysteries which are none of our business and God is simply asking us to hang-on to our faith.

The curriculum that God has laid out for us can be a tough one. We're told that we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice. How many bodies have we got? Only one. Mine happens to be old, Anglo-Saxon, tall, and female. That's a description of my body. It's the only one that I have to offer to God. It is a living sacrifice and if it's a living sacrifice to God, that means it's holy unto God, acceptable and an act of spiritual worship.

It amazes me that I can take this old body of mine and make it an act of spiritual worship. It's just made of blood and bones and tissue. Isn't it? What's spiritual about that? It becomes spiritual and accepted in the offering.

Someone wrote these lovely words, "Lord, here I hold within my trembling hand this will of mine. A thing which seemest small, and only thou O Christ canst understand how when I yield thee this, I yield mine all. It hath been wet with tears and stained with sighs, clinched in my gasp till beauty it hath none. Now from thy footstool where it prostrate lies, my prayer ascendeth. Let thy will be done."

It takes a steadfast heart to allow the Lord to let his will be done in us, but I want that kind of a heart. I want his will with all my heart. I say it to him over and over, "Lord, do anything you want with me. At any cost, work your will in me."

Pere John Nicholas Grou, whose dates are 1731 to 1803, a Frenchman, he said, "It is when the heavenly fire has departed and the soul is cool again that we discover the real quality of our will." "It is when the heavenly fire has departed and the soul is cool again that we discover the real quality of our will," is there someone listening today that feels that God has forsaken him? Has the heavenly fire departed? Your soul is cool, and you just want to pack it up and throw in the towel. That's when you're going to discover the real quality of your will. Most of us, I suppose, have from time to time, mood swings.

Proverbs 25:28 says, "We are like a city whose walls are broken down," that's a man who lacks self-control. When we're not feeling very much in control of things, we may sink into a swamp of self-pity and I am convinced that self-pity is absolutely demonic.

The Bible says, "My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, will I remember you." That's a great "therefore" isn't it? That's from Psalm 42:6. Is your soul cast down within you today? The second half of that verse says, "Therefore, will I remember you." For this very reason--that I'm feeling miserable--I'm going to remember God. I'm going to take myself by the scruff of the neck, and I'm going to remember his faithfulness.

Do you suppose that Mary did not allow joy or sorrow to interfere with the faithful performance of her duty? I think that probably describes Mary. She was a woman totally at God's disposal, and so I would be pretty sure that she didn't allow joy or sorrow to interfere with the faithful performance of her duty. You've often heard me say, "Do it now."

I think of the dear Rettew family who have adopted--I don't know how many it is now--how many children. They had 23 children when my husband and I visited them. Ten of those 23 were seriously handicapped. There were four children in wheelchairs, four blind children and I don't know how many other difficulties they deal with. Since then, they have gotten more children. And when I question them as to how in the world they could carry on the faithful performance of this stupendous duty, they smiled simply, humbly. They said, "We just gave ourselves to God," and they received from him the gift of 20 children and the gift goes on.

Do you think the Rettew's act on their feelings and nothing else? Not by a long shot. They love those children. They give themselves to those children, and in giving themselves to the children, they give them to God.

Paul said, "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice." And in God's curriculum there're going to be some exams, aren't there? What is this test or this exam or this trial through which we must go in order to be approved? The Bible says that we are to be approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed. Well, this exam is called life.

Jesus was given life as a tiny seed in the womb of a young woman, and he grew because he drew upon her flesh and her blood. And in that silent dark quite place, he was shaped for what God had for him in the future. He had to go through the birth canal. He had to be a helpless baby with the necessity of being cared for.

Undoubtedly, he hurt, skinned his knee. Perhaps he was ridiculed as a child. He came from a poor family. He studied carpentry we assume. The Bible doesn't specifically tell us that, but let's assume that his foster father, Joseph, taught him carpentry. He worked with hammers and saws and axes and adzes. He was baptized. He went through the temptation in the wilderness. He had successes. He had many followers who loved him. He did many miracles. The crowds shouted hosannas.

He was popular, and the Bible says he learned obedience by the things, which he suffered. Jesus Christ, Lord of lords, maker of the Universe had to learn obedience by the things, which he suffered. Is God's curriculum too tough on you? Are the exams impossible? Think of Jesus who, as he poured out his love and his life for those people, was faced with indifference, with incessant demands. He himself, as a human being, was tired. He got hungry and thirsty. He was misunderstood. He was opposed, mocked, hated, captured, blindfolded, slapped, stripped, and nailed to a cross--tough exam--we think we have it tough. We follow him who was crucified.

Think of the three men in the book of Daniel when the king asked them, "Do you believe that your God can deliver you from the fiery furnace?" Their answer was a ringing one. They said, "Yes, we believe that he can do that. But if not, be it known unto you O King that we will not bow down and serve you."

That old soldier of the Cross, Samuel Rutherford, Scottish man, he wrote, "For some it is down crosses and up umbrellas, but I am persuaded that we must take heaven with the wind and the rain in our faces." There's a steadfast heart, someone willing to undergo the curriculum and the exams. "For some it's down crosses and up umbrellas," is that the category in which you would put yourself, or with Samuel Rutherford, you would be able to say, "I am persuaded that we must take heaven with the wind and the rain in our faces."

And that reminds me of a more modern character who certainly was a tough one. I remember hearing Margaret Thatcher when she was greatly vilified over the Falkland Islands crisis. I just remember her saying, "The lady's not for turning." "The lady's not for turning," she had the gift of tenacity. May God give us stick-to-itiveness.

Lisa Barry: That's a gift I'm sure we could all use, so let's ask for it. The Bible says, "You do not have because you do not ask." Let's not let that be the reason we missed out on the gift, because God gives to all without finding fault.

Another gift that would certainly be worth giving to others is this Gateway to Joy: Reflections that Draw Us Nearer to God. It's a collection of wonderful stories, poems, quotes, and excerpts, writing that has been quoted often on this program. Why not purchase this commemorative edition for yourself or offer it to a friend as a wonderful gift? The cost is only $15.00 for a limited time. That's a substantial savings off the regular price. To purchase it, you can send that amount along with a note to:

Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. Or, call toll-free 1-800-759-4JOY. You might also want to ask about this one week tape series. That number again is 1-800-759-4569.

Gateway To Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible. Be with us again on Monday, when Elisabeth reminds us of the old hymn that says, "Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say it is well with my soul." Join us then for the next Gateway To Joy.