Elisabeth Elliot: And you know, you could greatly simplify your life by quitting this effort to understand why. Just say, "Lord, I don't understand it. But I love You and I trust You and I want to follow You. I'm going to leave this totally in Your hands and go on trusting You."

Lisa Barry: If we could look back over our lives and see each time we've doubted God's wisdom, I'm sure we would notice many hours of questioning and rebelling. Of course, in the end, God proved Himself correct. But still, all those hours of fighting lay there dead on the floor, never to be redeemed. Elisabeth Elliot would like our future to be different from our past. Today on Gateway To Joy, she's going to tell us why we should simply accept our current situation as part of God's assignment. It's 15 minutes that might just set your heart free. Find out more as we begin this Wednesday 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, talking with you again today about being still, using that beautiful hymn by Katharina von Schlege, "Be still, my soul. The Lord is on thy side."

I want to read a sweet letter from a lady named Myrtle. She says, "I live alone with my kitty, Muffin, and we live a nice life. We love the Lord very much. I don't have a car or TV, but I don't really need them. We have our music, and I still sing those beautiful hymns that I was brought up with. I love your program and always listen to it, sometimes very early in the morning. May God bless you in doing God's work. I have a Sunday school Bible class in the summer with a lot of young children, and I love it." It's nice to hear from someone who is so contented.

Well, here is the opposite kind. This is the sort of letter that I get quite often. "I am an independent, attractive professional homeowner, female, who keeps finding the wrong ones to date. They aren't appreciative of my good qualities, and I continue to get my feelings and heart hurt. I'm 34, and I want to understand why God hasn't sent me a mate. I get frustrated and lonely. All my friends constantly remind me of my good qualities and are eager to set me up or can't understand why things don't work out for me. I'm really struggling for strength and patience to understand why. This is the side of my life I have much difficulty and heartache about. I would like to meet that man of my dreams. Fortunately, I have never been married to those few I got so attached to and betrayed by. Help! I want to feel better about myself and this crisis."

The remedy that I would recommend to this dear woman is "Be still, my soul. The Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide." Are you satisfied with God's order and provision of things? Well, clearly this dear woman is not. Do we have a right to understand why about everything?

Well, I can give you a blanket answer to that question. One of the reasons--there are several reasons why He doesn't answer our prayers--but one of them is because He knows a whole lot better than we do that the answer that we're looking for would destroy us. God knows whether this particular woman needs a husband. Obviously, since she doesn't have one right now, she doesn't need one right now. It says in Philippians, "My God shall supply all your need."

If you really believe in the wisdom and kindness and love of God, you will accept what He gives you. You know, you could greatly simplify your life by quitting this effort to understand why. Just say, "Lord, I don't understand it, but I love You and I trust You and I want to follow You. I'm going to leave this totally in Your hands and go on trusting You. Teach me to be still in my soul. Teach me to leave to You, Lord, to order and provide."

"In every change, He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul. Thy best, thy heavenly Friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end."

What is it you're asking God for today? I don't know. But I'm thankful for the privilege of speaking on the radio with the hope that there will always be those to whom the message is particularly suited. Will you pray for me that God will give me clarity, simplicity, and above all, the words which are empowered by Him alone?

Another letter. This lady says, "I was hoping to get some advice in helping me get through unanswered prayer. I have been praying for a very few basic things going on in my life. For over a year, God has not even moved in any type of a direction." Now that's an interesting statement, isn't it? How in the world does this lady know that God has not moved in any type of direction? She forgets that God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.

"However," she says, "I have grown in leaps and bounds, but I feel like I am hopelessly stuck in such a gray, bland point in my life. I feel that there is no hope of going anywhere. I feel like I am useless in the ministry of Christ because I am a single mother. My husband walked out, and I filed for divorce after a year and a half from his absence. I don't deserve any type of blessing from God. I know He is just and sovereign. If He felt I deserved nothing, then I would receive nothing. I'm tired. So many times lately I think I see Him moving me in a direction, the door slams shut in my face. Because I divorced him, have I sinned?

I have asked for forgiveness and dedicated my life and my son's life to God's work. But does it matter? God has placed me in a fairly high profile ministry, and I'm growing every day. But why doesn't He answer me?"

There's a still, small voice. Sometimes we hear Him and sometimes our ears are not attuned. But I think if we listen carefully, perhaps get down on our knees, we might hear that still, small voice saying, "Will you love Me? Will you trust Me? Will you praise Me?" So I would say to this dear one, "Try loving Him, trusting Him, praising Him, and just leaving the hard question of why He doesn't answer the prayer in the way that you want it to be answered."

I feel sure that when we are received in heaven, we are going to be shown the reasons why our prayers received a negative answer. What a tremendous relief it will be to see that God did indeed know exactly what He was doing, and He has saved us from all sorts of pitfalls.

You women now--look back to the eighth grade. Was there some guy in that school that you just fell madly in love with? You just thought he would be the most wonderful husband in the whole world. Don't you sigh a great sigh of relief, thinking, "Thank You, Lord, that You didn't let me get tangled up with him"?

You men--I daresay that you can look back over a long life and think of times now for which you are grateful that God said, "No."

This poor lady ends up with saying, "I am so very broken and I have offered it up to Him. What more can I do for Him?"

The most important thing that we can do for God is to love Him, trust Him and praise Him. "Be still, my soul. Thy God doth undertake to guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul. The waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below."

Just a few days ago I lost complete track of my very important little tiny engagement book that has all of my brains in it. I turned the house practically upside down. I was very upset. I can't claim that I had very much peace. But you certainly can be sure that I did pray that the Lord would enable me to find that little booklet. Did I leave it on a plane somewhere so that it fell down between the seats, and of course eventually gets dumped in the trash by the cleaners? Is it someplace in this house? How could it possible be here and I not find it, since it's not a very big house?

Well, the Lord made me wait for two whole days. On the second day, I was able to just surrender the whole matter to the Lord. I quit stewing. I said, "Lord, You know whether I need this or not. I think I need it pretty badly. I'm going to leave it in Your hands."

The next morning as I was reading my Bible, early in the morning, I suddenly remembered, "There's one place I don't think I looked." Of course, if a thing is lost, it's always lost in the one place that you don't look. But it occurred to me then that I had had a group of women here for teaching on a Sunday evening a few days before. "I don't think I've even gone into the living room since then," I said to myself. I go into the kitchen to eat, and the rest of the time my husband and I work upstairs; I in my study and he in his office.

So I thought, "Well, I'll have a look in the living room." I went down, and the little book was exactly on the chair where I had spent that evening with those women. So the Lord did undertake, but He kept me from knowing for two whole days, because He wanted me to be still in my soul.

"The waves and winds still know His voice who rules them while He dwelt below. All now mysterious shall be bright at last." May we learn to trust Him. "Wilt thou love Me, trust Me and praise Me?" May the Lord give you a quiet heart, faith resting in who He is, absolute confidence that He is loving and kind, even when He leads us into storms, even when He leads us into dark places where we cannot see anything in front of us. "Be still, my soul."

Lisa Barry: I think we can all relate to that last example. It reveals how God wants us to live moment by moment in His presence. The Bible says we're to pray about everything. I wonder how many of us come even close to that ideal.

I think one way to get there is to fill our minds with the truth about God in any way we can get it. One way is through music. We have a cassette of hymns and praise songs that will keep your thoughts focused on Christ. One of the hymns on the tape is "We Rest on Thee." This is the song that Jim Elliot and the other four missionaries sang just before they entered the Auca jungle for the last time. It's a great collection that we'd like to make available to you.

The cost of the cassette is $11.50. It's called STRONG IN THY STRENGTH. Mention that name when you write to us at Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or dial up our Web site at gatewaytojoy.org. You can order books, find daily devotionals and much more. The address again is gatewaytojoy.org. Today's program has been a production of Back to the Bible and is supported by the generous gifts of people like you.

Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about the kind of heart that pleases God most next time on Gateway To Joy.