Elisabeth Elliot: It's human nature for us to have, on the one hand, a deep reluctance to change and yet to wish to remain in command in some areas. We'd like to determine the scope and the limits of our obedience and of our transfiguration in Christ.

Lisa Barry: I for one am guilty of that. I'm very interested in the spiritual growth that makes life more purposeful and smooth-running, but I draw the line at the kind of growth that leads me to painful endurance. Then it's easy to find an excuse why God couldn't possibly have meant this for me.

Today on Gateway To Joy, Elisabeth Elliot will spend another 15 minutes talking about dealing with restlessness. If we're going to do that on God's timetable, it might involve a little discomfort. It might mean changing a few plans. Are you willing? Let's find out as we embark on this Tuesday 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, continuing my talks today on the subject of restlessness.

George Elliot, whom you may remember was really a woman, a 19^th century writer, she has a passage in which there's a dialog between a mother and her daughter. She says, "You are seeking your own will, my daughter. You are seeking some good other than the law you are bound to obey. But how will you find good? It is not a thing of choice. It is a river that flows from the foot of the invisible throne and flows by the path of obedience. I say again, man cannot choose his duties. You may choose to forsake your duties and choose not to have the sorrow they bring, but you will go forth and what will you find, my daughter? Sorrow without duty. Bitter herbs and no bread with them."

It's human nature for us to have, on the one hand, a deep reluctance to change and yet to wish to remain in command in some areas. We'd like to determine the scope and the limits of our obedience and of our transfiguration in Christ.

You remember the story of Eve. She said, in effect, when she took that fruit that had been forbidden, "My will be done." And by contrast, the beautiful story of the virgin Mary, whose immediate response to the message from the angel that she was to become the mother of the Son of God, was "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Let it happen as you say" or "Be it unto me according to thy word." She wanted God's will, not hers. She was totally surrendered to Him.

Did she know what this assignment would entail? Did she know what the cost would be? Did she understand the where, the when and the how? No. She simply said, "Let it be according to your word. Let it happen as you say. I belong to the Lord, body and soul. Here I am, the Lord's servant. As you have spoken, so be it."

There was nothing earth-bound or utilitarian about Mary's response. There were no claims to a right to herself, the carrying out of her own plans, her own preferences. She was just a simple, humble village girl. She lived on earth, but her heart was in heaven. Her interests were identical with God's. She had no other agenda.

You and I must learn to take the world's pronouncements and lay them side by side with Scripture. How do they look? Do they match? Are they compatible? Often we wrench them every which way to make them compatible, but it can't be done. We must learn to say, "Not my will, but Thine be done."

Often the action of God has nothing in it to feed my self-esteem. There is a drastic prescription for our redemption. The Bible says that we are to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. Not the sort of thing that you want to listen to on Christian radio, is it? Or any other kind of radio, for that matter. Who in the world wants to crucify himself, the flesh, with its passions and desires?

Well, I know that there a good many of you out there who want to do just that, because you want to belong to Jesus Christ and you want to grow in grace and you want to be a true Christian. So I will read to you what it says in Galatians 5:24.

"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature, with its passions and desires." And then in Galatians 6:14 Paul says, "May I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." Rather tough words, aren't they? Difficult to understand. But as we bring ourselves simply and wholeheartedly under the lordship of Jesus Christ, He is going to show us, day by day, step by step, what that means-that we are to be crucified to the world and accepting the suffering or whatever form in which the cross may be presented to us.

Ask yourself, "What matters to me more than anything else in the world?" Do you wish your life away, always longing for what you haven't got? Just a little bit more, you think. As someone has said, "How much money is enough?" Well, it's always just a little more than you've got.

I just heard this week a woman who had won the lottery. She had won a million dollars. She went down to collect her million and she found out that she had not won one million, but fourteen million dollars. You know, I have a sneaking suspicion that that lady might have thought, "Well, wouldn't it have been to nice to have fifteen million?" No, she probably didn't really think that.

But you and I would think, "Well, fourteen million ought to be enough for anybody." And yet, and yet. Maybe we'd rather be somewhere else, with somebody else-a desire to emigrate from what one is to what one is not.

We imagine that any change might be an improvement, and that always turns out to be a disappointment. The initial enthusiasm wears off. The bonds of the old self press harder than ever. Everywhere, in HOOKED ON PHONICS, in revamping seminars, in pedagogic reforms of whatever type, warding off of aging, DNA, beauty treatments, warding off of death, reducing the number of causes of death-but then, what then? We can change nothing. Everything passes, the Bible says. Only God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Isn't that a wonderful word?

In my old age, I think of that so often. I can look back at the faithfulness of God over many, many years and realize that if there's something that I'm worried about today, I can stop worrying because He is the same today as He was yesterday. Did He carry me through yesterday? Yes. Will He carry me through today? But what about tomorrow? But what about tomorrow? He is the same forever.

In Jeremiah 50:1-7 the prophet says this: "This is the word the Lord spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Babylonians: Announce and proclaim among the nations! Lift up a banner and proclaim it! Keep nothing back, but say, 'Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be filled with terror, her images will be put to shame and her idols filled with terror. A nation from the north will attack her and lay waste her land. No one will live in it; both men and animals will flee away.' In those days, at that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them, devoured them. Their enemies said, 'We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord, their true pasture; the Lord, the hope of their fathers.'"

There is no other security than the hope of our fathers. Do you know that hymn, "Faith of our fathers, living still in spite of dungeon, fire and sword"? There is no other refuge, ladies and gentlemen. Jesus Christ is our refuge. To learn the liberating truth of staying quietly where we've been put, performing the duties that go with it and saying, "This is enough. This brings peace of soul." Ask those who have learned. The rest which Christ gives is rest in the soul, not external rest, which is mere ease and relaxation.

The dictionary says that to relax means to make lax, soft, enervated, deprived of energy. It's possible to have God's rest in all its sweetness, to rest fully in Him, yet be working very hard, enduring continual suffering and pain. Some of the world's best Christians are great sufferers, but nothing has broken their rest in Christ.

A restless mind is unfitted for real work, full of tension, stressed out. Ever heard that expression? You've probably even heard it from your little children. "Hey, Mom, I'm stressed out." Desperate for relaxation. "Let's go somewhere. Let's do something interesting." Some balmy, Caribbean isle with turquoise water and pink sand and some exotic liquid in a coconut shell with a straw-is that your idea of rest?

May we learn to find our rest in our Heavenly Father.

Lisa Barry: Couldn't I have both of those, please? No, seriously. Even the Caribbean wouldn't be a paradise with spiritual unrest inside. Have you ever done that, though? Try to use a location to change your circumstances? It doesn't work, does it? We just carry our same problems along on vacation.

That's why it's so important to put our priorities in line first. One way to do that is by committing to spend time with God at the beginning of every day. It's your way of saying, "I'm thinking first of You, God. What would You have me do?"

A great way to focus your thoughts in that manner is by using a devotional companion. We've got one called AMAZING GRACE. I think you'll find countless ways to apply the good things you'll read there.

Here's the address to write to for more information on how to purchase that: Gateway To Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Or call toll-free: 1-800-759-4JOY. That's 1-800-759-4569. Our Internet ministry address is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway To Joy has been a production of Back to the Bible.

We'll learn more about dealing with restlessness next time, so make it a point to join us then for another Gateway To Joy.