Lisa Barry: In a world that gets increasingly more complicated everyday, people are becoming determined to live a simplified life. But what exactly does that mean, and how does one go about it? For the next two weeks on Gateway To Joy, Elisabeth Elliot will be showing us how to simplify, and the first step is acceptance. Find out more as we begin this Monday edition of Gateway To Joy.

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, talking all during this week about some very necessary spiritual principles in my own life.

You know, I've been thinking a whole lot about this Gateway To Joy privilege that I have had for 10 years now. And I find myself saying the same things over and over and over again. And quite a few of my listeners have said to me, "Elisabeth, don't ever stop saying them." Sometimes I just think, "Well, you must just get so bored," which remains me of a Danish lady that Lars and I met in London. We just had a brief time with her, but she was an old friend of Lar's mother, so his mother had said, "Make sure you visit the Danish lady."

One of the things that she said to Lars and me, as we happened to be on our way from London to Norway, she said, "Well, I hope you have a nice time in Norway. If you don't get too b-o-r-e-d with each other." And we've just laughed about that so many times since then. "If you don't get too b-o-r-e-d with each other."

Am I talking to some people who are just so bored with each other that they don't know what to do? Well, that's one of the things that I'm so grateful for--Amy Carmichael's very simple, but very profound word "acceptance." "In acceptance lieth peace." So this whole week I'm going to be talking about how to simplify your life. I hope that there are many people listening who really have been struggling with the whole idea of simplifying their life. How in the world can we simplify our lives when our lives are continually becoming more and more complicated?

You know life does get awfully complicated. Things were much simpler when we didn't have computers. Now I know you people who have computers just think they're the most wonderful things in the world, and I confess I have a computer sitting in on my desk. I don't think it's the most wonderful thing in the world. Probably part of the reason I don't think that is because I really don't know very much about it. I don't know how to make the crazy thing work sometimes. But, I do want to simplify my life.

One of the ways, and this is right at the very beginning of this list, I have to learn to accept what God has allowed to happen in my life. It is Almighty God who has chosen me to live. I remember my mother telling me quite late in her life, that she had had a miscarriage a year or so before I was born. She said, "You know, Bets, I never even thought about the fact that if I had not had that miscarriage, which was of great sorrow at the time, I would not have had you." So of course, I would not be sitting here today looking out of my window at a sailboat and a speedboat, realizing the amazing ways in which God works.

In Hebrews 2:8,9 we read, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death. So that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." Jesus accepted the will of the Father. He was willing to be made a little lower than the angels. Now just stop and think about this for a minute. The angels are creatures made by God, and Jesus was God--God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit--three Persons who make up the Trinity. Co-equal, consubstantial, co-eternal. But Jesus, in willing obedience to His Heavenly Father, became a mortal man. "Was born," as you know, "of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and was buried;?and the third day He rose again from the dead;?and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; and from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

So the writer of the Hebrews says, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death." "In acceptance lies peace." God is going to give you and me many different kinds of deaths to die. We must give up our right to ourselves. We must accept whatever God dishes out to us. And we must realize that He does it because of His mercy, because of His everlasting love, because He wants to conform you and me to the image of Jesus Christ.

"Jesus suffered death so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." He understands the things which you are just dying over. He understands that the little deaths, the major deaths, the big deaths, and then of course, the real death. And when you lose someone through death, He understands all about that because He has been through it Himself.

Fénelon, a 17th century spiritual advisor, wrote, "Accustom yourself to unreasonableness and injustice. Abide in peace in the presence of God, who sees all these evils more clearly than you do and who permits them. Be content with doing with calmness the little that depends on yourself, and let all else be to you as if it were not."

Now that is one definition of how to accept the things that God is laying on you. Now stop and think what do you need to accept? Something that you have perhaps been arguing with God over? Fighting with God over? Clenching your teeth, clenching your fist and saying, "Lord, I can't take this. How much longer does this have go on? Are you ever going to give me a husband? Are you ever going to make my husband behave himself better than he's doing now?" Whatever the problem may be.

"Accustom yourself to unreasonableness and injustice. Abide in peace in the presence of God, who sees all these evils more clearly than you do" (Don't forget that) "and who permits them. Be content with doing with calmness the little that depends on yourself, and let all else be to you as if it were not."

Thomas à Kempis said, "It cannot be anything but good whatsoever Thou shalt do with me." And Amy Carmichael's word, "I will accept the breaking sorrow, which God tomorrow will to His child explain. Then did the turmoil deep within me cease. Not vain the word, not vain. For in acceptance lieth peace."

Do you remember what Jesus prayed when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane? In an agony because He was about to die on that cross. But He said, "If it be possible let this cup pass from Me. But if it is not possible, nevertheless not My will but Thine be done." That is acceptance. Thy will, oh Lord, be done. God may be speaking to you today about something which He wills to do in you and through you and for you and by you, and you're saying, "Lord, I can't do that. I don't want to do that. That doesn't fit into my plans." Will you accept what God has given to you to do? You'll find peace.

Now there's another one of these simplifiers. It is always possible to do the will of God. Did you get that? I believe that with all my heart. It is always possible to do the will of God. Do you suppose, for a moment, that God is going to will something which He is not going to enable you to comply with? Well, of course not! You mothers and fathers, you want to train your children to be good men and women. But you're not going to give them something which is impossible for them to obey, nor is our Heavenly Father. Let's face it, He does give us a lot of things which we think we can't do, and we argue with God. But it is always possible to do the will of God.

Now did I come up with this idea out of my head? No! I got it out of John 14:15. It says, "If you love Me, you will obey what I command." "If you love Me, you will obey what I command." Singing now days what are called praise songs, and a whole lot of them are telling God how much we love Him. And that's fine if it's really true. But I can't help wondering sometimes when I'm in these churches that major on praise songs, do they stop to think about these words, "If you love Me, you will obey what I command." Jesus is saying you can see about it, you can pray about it, you can talk about it, but the only valid proof of love is obedience. It is always possible to obey God.

John 15:15 says, "I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. This is my command, love each other." Now think about that person that you are sure you cannot possibly love. This is a command; you must love.

John 14:30-31 is Jesus' words to His disciples just before He goes back to His Father. He says, "The prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over Me. But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what My Father has commanded." And this same Lord Jesus is going to help you to do exactly what His Father commands. It is always possible to do the will of God. It is a simplifier in your life.

Lisa Barry: Well, if you can put today?s suggestions into practice, you?ll be well on your way to simplifying your life. Something else that will help is to be reminded of helpful verses and quotes that have a tendency to stick in your mind. You?ll find many of these in the book Gateway To Joy: Reflections that Draw Us Nearer to God. We?d love for you to have a copy, and the cost is $18.50. To purchase it, you can send that amount to:

Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. That's Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or toll free 1-800-759-4JOY. That?s 1-800-759-4569. You can also find us on the Internet at gatewaytojoy.org.

Gateway To Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible. Tomorrow Elisabeth talks more about how to simplify your life, so tune in then for another Gateway To Joy.