Lisa Barry: What was the last excuse you gave God for not meeting with Him in quiet time? Were the kids too rambunctious? Did your to-do list get too long and devotions got kicked off the list altogether? Well, this is not the time to be pointing fingers, because we all know that as soon as you point a finger at someone else, if you look at your hand you'll notice three more pointing back at you. We all know quiet time needs to be a priority, but for one reason or another it gets easily pushed back or eliminated. Today on Gateway To Joy, Elisabeth Elliot offers another antidote for anxiety?spending quality time with God. Find out how on this Wednesday 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 with you again today about what I call an antidote for anxiety.

Anxiety is a great temptation to me. It very often is the first thing that springs into my mind when I hear a bad scene or a sad story of some sort. Anxious! Oh, my! How awful! Why did that have to happen? Why did that have to happen to somebody that I love?

Well, what is the antidote for anxiety? I want to thank you so much for your letters, your prayers, your willingness to be taught, and for your stories. Now of course, I can't read all the letters or all the prayers. I do try to read the stories. They're not nearly as many as there are letters and prayers. I do what I can, and I have here a letter in front of me from somebody named Marie.

She says, "My Gateway To Joy story is probably not the most exciting one you will receive. However, I think it may be representative of the majority of listeners." For those of you who did not know, there was a plea on this program to my listeners to send me their Gateway To Joy stories. I want to assure you that I read all of those. I read those Gateway To Joy stories, and I was just so greatly blessed. Many of them were describing the antidotes to anxiety.

So Marie says, "I don't have an earth-shattering testimony to share, but my story is as exciting and as dramatic as any other. Gateway To Joy is my daily reminder of who I am and who the Lord wants me to be. As a stay-at-home mom of three wonderful children, my days are filled with what the world might call mundane tasks. If I listened to what the world says, I'm just wasting my life. Thankfully, every day through the sound biblical teaching I hear on Gateway To Joy, I listen to what God has to say about my life.

How often the words 'any work, when offered to the Lord, is spiritual work' come to my mind during the day. Any work, when offered to the Lord, is spiritual work. Just when I'm feeling tired or frustrated, I hear those words. I do find that the everyday tasks become a joy for me as I offer them to the Lord. Each day I am challenged and inspired to offer all that I am and all that I need to do to the Lord.

The help and encouragement I've received in the areas of childrearing and submission are just two lessons that come to my mind. I see the many areas in my life that the Lord would have me change. Your words hit home with me. How thankful I am that there is someone willing to speak the truth as God has given it to us, without sugarcoating."

I hope I don't ever get criticized as sugarcoating God's Word. Maybe we need a little sweetness once in a while, but most of the time the truth hurts. Very often we are anxious, forgetting that there is an antidote.

Marie says, "The best part is that I am never left devastated and without hope. I'm challenged daily to be more Christlike through Gateway To Joy. So how has Gateway To Joy changed my life? In ways which cannot be measured. I often wonder where I would be without the practical teaching that I get. Every day in small ways, my life is changed by this program. Sometimes I'm challenged to change an area of my life that is not pleasing to God. At other times I receive encouragement to keep on going; for example, 'do the next thing.'

No matter what the subject of the program is, in some way it has an effect on my life. Even the programs where Mrs. Gren reads some of her favorite children's stories have challenged and inspired me to read more to my children."

For some of my listeners who may not know, Elisabeth Elliot is Mrs. Gren. I just use my pen name, since more people would recognize that. But I am Mrs. Lars Gren.

"Gateway To Joy is my 15-minute sanctuary each morning," Marie says. "All the small ways in which Gateway To Joy has changed my life add up to one very big influence."

Well, to God be the glory for the work of His Holy Spirit in the heart of dear Marie. Thank you, Marie, for taking the time to put this down to encourage us here at Gateway To Joy.

Now when we talk about prayer, we're talking about conversation with God. No matter where we are, His ear is always open. I want to stress again?I don't think it's repeated too many times?I want to stress the importance of arranging quiet time. Don't tell me you can't do it, if Jesus could do it. In His very busy life, constantly walking and working and helping people, Jesus was able to find that quiet time. But very often, perhaps always, the quietest time would be during the night, when He would get up very early and go out and commune with His Father.

So I'm not hear to tell you exactly when or where you should have this quiet time, but I am here to tell you that you should have it. Every one of us needs to be in conversation with God. As we read the Bible and meditate on it, we are receiving communication from Him. When we pray, we are communicating with Him. We are talking to God and we are expecting God to talk to us, to help us to make the decisions that have to be made. Whatever you need to forsake and give up in order to maintain quiet time, my strong urge to you is "Do so." Lay it all out. Talk to your husband or your wife and decide, "How can we rearrange our lives in order to have some quiet time?" There is just no calculating the value of being alone with God first thing in the morning, before you talk to anybody else. Listen to God. Open His Word. Talk to Him. Pray. Then draw on His strength for the rest of the day.

You have to arrange a time, a place, and perhaps most difficult of all?quietness. Maybe you have to go sit in the car in the garage for quietness. You may say, "Well, Elisabeth, how long is this quiet time supposed to be? Would ten minutes be okay?" I would certainly say that ten minutes is a whole lot better than no minutes. Ten minutes is better than five. But I can't tell you, and God knows the real reasons why you can't do it, if you can't. But I think if you earnestly ask Him, He will show you a way that you can.

Now may I make these small suggestions? You begin, first of all, with an act of adoration. Rather than coming immediately with your long list of things that you want God to do for you, how about adoring and praising and thanking Him? Those are the first three things?adoration, praise and thanksgiving. One great help to those three things would be to get your hands on an old hymnbook. It's amazing how many hymns are just sheer adoration and praise and thanksgiving.

The next thing to do is to listen quietly. See if God has something to say to you, impress something in your mind. Then confession. Confess your sins. Ask the Lord to forgive you. Then intercede, which means prayer for other people. And petition. I think it's a good idea to end with giving the Lord thanks again. Thanks for the privilege of coming and receiving His instructions for the day.

Now to whom do we come? It's a good idea to keep a little notebook with a list of petitions and answers. It's a great strengthening thing. I have a tiny little spiral notebook, in which I record some of my prayers. It's amazing how many of them I forget. If I hadn't written down the prayer and put a place in there where I could add the answer to the prayer, I would probably have forgotten 90% of the mercies of God. So it's a faith-strengthening exercise to get yourself just a little spiral notebook and put down some of your most important prayers. Keep that notebook.

Now from an old writer by the name of Leighton, "Whatsoever it is that presses thee, go tell thy Father. Put the matter over into His hand, and so shalt thou be freed from that dividing, perplexing worry that the world is full of. When thou art either to do or to suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose or business, go tell God of it and acquaint Him with it. Yea, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter of caring." This is sort of old English, but he is simply saying, "Cast your burdens on the Lord, and then you can quit caring about the matter, because He cares for it." Just put it in His hands. No more care, but quiet, sweet, diligence in thy duty.

And the duty on this particular day that I was reading this little passage happened to be a huge pile of radio mail. It was a quiet, sweet diligence that I brought to the reading of that mail and dependence on God for the carrying out of thy matters. Do you depend on God for the carrying out of the things that trouble you? Roll your cares and yourself with them as one burden onto God, and His shoulders are strong enough to hold them.

Lisa Barry: What a practical talk today. A book that will help you take a step further in your quest for an anxiety-free life is one called THE CHRISTIAN'S SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE. It's written by Hannah Whitall Smith. The cost is $4. You can send that, along with your request, to Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. Or dial up our Web site at gatewaytojoy.org. You can order books, find daily devotionals and much more. Gateway To Joy has been a production by Back to the Bible and is supported by the generous gifts of people like you.

Tomorrow Elisabeth talks about accepting what God gives you. That's right here on Gateway To Joy.