Lisa Barry: This morning I was telling God that even though I was in a situation that was unpleasant to me, I accepted it as from His hand. My very next thought was to be critical of the person through whom that difficulty came. God quickly corrected my thinking in the Book of James where he said, "With the same mouth you praise God and curse your brother, this should not be" (James 3:10).

Are you willing to be content with God's will for you even if it's not what you planned? Elisabeth Elliot talks about this very important subject next on 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 today about contentment.

Are you a contented woman, a contented man? Well there are some people that I know that just seem to be very contented, very calm, and very wise, the sort of person that you could go to when you feel as though everything is falling apart in your own life. I have been greatly blessed by many people who have shown me this matter of contentment.

I think of a dear, sweet, old lady by the name of Mrs. Kershaw. When I came home from college one time for Christmas vacation I was eager to see Mrs. Kershaw. My mother had been writing letters about this dear lady she had discovered was a widow. She lived all by herself in a rackety, packity old house with hardly any furniture. I don't know how she maintained the house at all, but she was the sweetest most cheerful, loving and outgoing person you've ever seen in your life. She was stone deaf and hunchbacked and poor.

I remember the day I walked into the kitchen when I had come home for Christmas vacation, and here was this lady dressed in black with a very big hump on her back. She was leaning over the sink washing dishes by hand. I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around with the most radiant face and looked at me. She said, "Oh, it's the daughter." She had been hearing about the older daughter during those months when I was in college, and so she was eager to meet me.

Well I've never seen a more radiant face. I think of the words in Philippians 4:6-7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Mrs. Kershaw demonstrated that peace in everything that she did.

She had one object in mind when she came every morning to the Howard household--What can I do to make the Howards happy--and she did it. She did it so graciously, so lovingly and so quietly; and part of the day she would always go upstairs and sit down with our step-grandmother who was rather a crotchety old lady who we really did not enjoy having to talk with.

We would come home from school sometimes and Mother would say, "Please go upstairs and talk to Nana for just a few minutes."

"Oh, do we have to talk to her? She never has anything to say and she doesn't want to hear what we have to say."

"I want you to go; you can sit down, you can smile, you can tell her what you did in school."

"She doesn't want to hear what we did in school."

"I want you to be nice to Nana," Mother would say.

But Mrs. Kershaw would go up every afternoon when it was her time to just sit down and have a little rest. She would sit down in the little rocking chair next to Nana who sat in the big stuffed rocking chair and the two of them would talk. They were both stone deaf. Can you imagine what the conversations were like? We would really get into hysterics. We would be standing in the hall sometimes listening to these two ladies, but Mrs. Kershaw never stopped smiling.

We're talking about contentment. Contentment can never dwell with anger. Is anger in itself an evil thing? No, it's anger occurring in people who are sinners, which easily and quickly becomes evil. The Bible says, "Be angry, and yet do not sin" (Eph. 4:26). Someone has said, "It is a good war and by God's grace I am winning it."

"No man had a greater right to be angry at the whole human race and me, than did our Lord on the cross. He would have been perfectly justified in calling out a couple of the larger caliber angels to destroy the world, but He looked down upon us and asked the Father to forgive us." Those are words from a man named S. M. Hutchins. I don't know who he was, but I like what he said. Jesus would have been perfectly justified in calling out to destroy the world, but He looked down upon us and asked the Father to forgive us.

Do you want to learn contentment?

Number 1: It cannot dwell with anger.
Number 2: It cannot dwell with self-pity.

Anger and self-pity are from the devil. So if you want to learn contentment you are going to have to quit getting angry and quit feeling sorry for yourself.

I remember the headmistress of the school that I went to in Florida, a boarding school, saying, "Betty Howard, you are full of self-pity." I was Betty Howard in those days. I don't think anyone else had ever told me that I was full of self-pity. I thought she was wrong and I was furious, but I had to go back to my room and ask the Lord, "Is that what I'm doing? I want to be contented."

Jesus was on the road to Jericho and He said, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it." That's from Mark 8:35. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."

Mrs. Kershaw was one of those people who never even thought of herself. She was always giving her life for other people, losing her life as it were. I'm sure she never thought of it in that way. All she wanted to do was help other people with that lovely, sweet smile of hers even though she couldn't hear a word we said unless she took off from her dress a very strange little implement that, back in those days, was quite a heavy thing. She would unpin it from her dress and hold it over to our mouths and when we spoke we practically had to shout to her. She would always smile and laugh, and she never pitied herself I'm sure.

I had a letter from one of my radio listeners telling me of the wonderful liberation from bondage that God had given her. She said, "Glory, hallelujah, I am learning how to die." Well, we're talking about contentment today; who wants to learn how to die? Well all of us need to from day to day. The apostle Paul said, "I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31). Well, I don't think I die daily, not by any means. I didn't have nearly the pressures that St. Paul had. But he had learned many things that he taught us, and one of them was how to die, relinquish, let go. In 1Corinthians 9:19 we read, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more."

I don't know what your particular job may be today but I would like to ask, "Are you contented in it? Are you willing to make yourself a slave to everyone?" I can imagine some of you saying, "What is she talking about? I am not going to make myself a slave to anyone!" Well, check 1 Corinthians 9:19. Are you dealing with what they call spiritual burnout? If so, maybe some of that comes from self-pity. The Lord wants us to be content with such things as we have. We've talked about:

Number 1: Contentment cannot dwell with anger.
Number 2: Contentment cannot dwell with self-pity.
Number 3: We are to give thanks always and for everything. That's what the Bible says. We are to give thanks always and for everything (Eph. 5:20).

If you are going to do that today, I think it's necessary somehow or other to find a quiet time. Probably the best time in the world is early in the morning. No matter what time you go to bed at night, have you got what it takes to get yourself out of bed and have a quiet time with silence, prayer, Bible, notebook, and hymns? Are you willing to relinquish all that makes quiet time impossible?

You know you can do everything you really want to do. Don't we usually know that deep down in our hearts? What I really want to do I can do. Do you really want to have quiet time with God? Some of you quite honestly would say, "No, I don't really think I need that." Try it sometime, you might find out you can't do without it.

Somebody's crying today, stewing and worrying and perhaps just giving up and feeling as if what they need to do is call their closest friends. May I suggest that you go instead to the foot of the cross? Take that trial and tribulation, that difficulty in your life, take it to the foot of the cross and leave it there. Then in contentment go and do whatever it is that God has given you today. He will enable you. He will help you.

(From the hymn, "In Heavenly Love Abiding")

Do you want contentment?

Number 1: It can't dwell with anger.
Number 2: It can't dwell with self-pity.
Number 3: You should give thanks always and for everything.

God bless you.

Lisa Barry: Contentment is an important first step in spiritual growth. I've met many Gateway To Joy listeners over the years and I know that there is an extremely high desire for that kind of maturity. From what you've told us, God has used Gateway To Joy a great deal in your lives. Why? Because Elisabeth Elliot is committed to giving you biblical principles and not her own opinion. If this is a place that you draw strength from, then I hope you'll be moved enough to pick up the phone and say, "I just wanted to say that I've listened for a long time and now it's time to get involved. What do I do?"

You can call us 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and here's that toll free number. 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Another option is to write to us at Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, NE 68501. On the Web we are at gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible.

Well do you feel as though your spiritual life is in a holding pattern? It could be because you are lacking a crucial element in your faith. Find out what that is the next time we meet for Gateway To Joy.