Elisabeth Elliot: "When all kinds of trials and temptations come into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Realize that they have come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance."

Lisa Barry: I love those words, don't you? But I'll have to be honest and say that I love them more after a trial is over than when I'm in the thick of it. Elisabeth Elliot has learned a great many lessons through the trials of life and she has learned that God is faithful. For the last

two weeks, we've been sitting in on a series of talks she gave at the Billy Graham Conference Center called "The Cove." And what has been the most encouraging is to hear how faithful God has been through all of the ups and downs of her life. The lesson is clear for all of us?God will take care of you. He hasn't forgotten. He sees your pain and He has a plan. Let's pick up where we left off last time as we begin this Thursday edition of Gateway to Joy. Here's Elisabeth.

Elisabeth Elliot: In the middle of the night, I woke up thinking of a hymn that I didn?t have down in my notes. It?s "Crown Him with Many Crowns." I think it has eight stanzas. Of course, most of the hymnbooks leave out three or four of them. I went through all that I could think of, and the one stanza that I couldn?t think of for the longest time?and Lars was wondering why I wasn?t sleeping. But I was just trying to think. "Lord, please give me those words." So He did. To me, this is the most beautiful of the stanzas of that hymn.

"Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time, Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime." When you think of the Creator of the rolling spheres and the Potentate of time, those are staggering concepts that none of us can really completely absorb. But the next line says, "Who every grief hath known that wrings the human breast and takes and bears them for His own that all in Him might rest."

Isn?t that beautiful? He, every grief has known, that wrings the human breast and takes and bears them for His own that you and I might rest.

Number three, now the key to peace. Didn?t the Apostle Paul pray for the removal of the thorn in his flesh? Yes, he did. What was the answer? No. "My grace is all you need." If you have the audacity to tell God that He hasn?t given you enough grace for whatever your particular trouble happens to be, you are in trouble, because that is His promise. "My grace is all you need."

Did Jesus pray, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me?" Yes, He did. But it was not possible, was it? That?s one thing I think that was not possible, because God could not save His Son and save you and me.

So Jesus? next prayer was, "If it is not possible, nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done." Here we have the mystery of this human will and His holy Father and His acceptance and the key to peace. That?s what He is wanting to teach you and me in our various tribulations and trials.

Was Paul not spiritual enough to get a "yes" answer to his plea that the thorn be taken away? Was Jesus not spiritual enough? Of course, that?s nonsense. There were far greater things at stake than we can ever imagine. There was a different kingdom, a different perspective, and suffering is not for nothing. Just remember that. Suffering is never for nothing. It is that you and I might be conformed to the image of Christ.

The psalmist says in Psalm 116:13, "What shall I render unto the Lord? Or what shall I give to the Lord?" What can we give to God? Not much of anything, except ourselves. So the psalmist says, "What shall I render unto the Lord?" Nothing. He says, "I will take the cup of salvation." Are you willing to receive the key to peace, which is the cup of salvation?

When we ask, "Lord, what can I do for You?" frequently we don?t seem to be able to think of a single thing that we can do for Him. But it may very well be that with great love and tenderness and total compassion He is reaching down to us and saying, "Receive what I want to give you. Take My peace. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth." The world can never give you peace.

We look around and we see people frantically looking here and there all over the place for fun, for comfort, for peace, for a little bit of relief. I hate this TGIF mindset. "Thank God It?s Friday." Blue Monday stuff. It?s just a constant reminder to everybody that life is miserable, life is horrible. Every single day should be a day of thanksgiving and praise to God for whatever that day holds. And we never know when we get up in the morning what the day may hold, yet He is always there. He is saying to us, "Take the cup of salvation. Take My peace. My peace I give to you, not as the world giveth."

"Salvation," someone has said, "is all that God in His love wants to accomplish in, for and through me." The cup of salvation. The psalmist said, "I will take the cup of salvation." All that God in His love wants to accomplish in, for and through me.

I found on my desk this morning a thick envelope with a long letter from a lady who is here. She told me a very sad story of some hurts that she had suffered. The whole letter just ended with such triumph. She obviously had learned the deep lessons of taking the cup of salvation, receiving God?s peace. She had been hurt. Who of us has not been hurt?

Our natural reaction to any kind of hurt, big or small, some tiny little thing that somebody said or somebody did or somebody who embezzled all the money from your business and completely ruined you or somebody that went off with your husband or wife?these are huge things. Yet very often they are things about which we can do nothing, except trust God and receive His peace.

It was a very encouraging, wonderful letter. She told me how God had just brought peace in her heart and in her home and in somebody else. Will you receive this for the sake of Jesus Christ? In acceptance, Amy Carmichael wrote, lies peace. I clung to those wonderful words day by day. It is "Yes, Lord." That?s what acceptance is about. I will receive this for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Now I have to put in a parenthesis in here that there are some things which can and ought to be changed. We have to pray that the Lord will give us the grace to see the difference between things which cannot be changed and which you can be miserable about for the rest of your life, unless you accept them, or things which can and ought to be changed. Now there are some things which can be changed which ought not to be changed.

Do you want me to give you an example? You women won?t appreciate this one, but we all have this sneaking suspicion in the back of our heads that when we get married, we are going to make a few tiny changes in this man that we think is the most wonderful man in the world. But he just has a few little quirks. You?re looking at a woman who has tried three different men.

There are some things that you think can be changed, but they can?t be. There are some things that you think can be changed, but ought not to be. So about 24 hours after you have repeated those staggering vows in the presence of God and witnesses, there are a few little surprises, aren?t there? Because you think you got a prize package, and what did he turn out to be but a surprise package? So for the rest of your fifty years of life together, you?re trying to change this man. There are some things which surely can be changed. Well, it?s not your business to change them.

The best way that you can change your husband is to love him. Of course, you men know that the best way you can change your wife is to love her. The Bible doesn?t say, "Change one another." It says, "Love one another." This is what you?re stuck with, whether it?s a husband or a wife or a set of very recalcitrant children or whatever. You accept it for that one day. You don?t know what God may have in mind. He may change things and people in ways that you never dreamed. But isn?t it wonderful to know that through much tribulation, we come to recognize that God really is up there and He loves us.

I love that first part of James. I think it?s Phillips translation that says, "When all kinds of trials and temptations come into your lives, my brothers, don?t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on and you will find that you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence."

I see that my time is up. Just a review of the three points. The topic is acceptance. Mystery. Faith. And the key to peace. May God give us grace to hear what He wants to say individually to us today. God bless you.

Lisa Barry: I hope you've been jotting down the ideas that have been most helpful to you during this series. And some of you may want to dig deeper into this subject. Others of you might be desperately looking for something that will help you deal with your grief. Well, let me suggest a great book that Elisabeth has written that takes this topic to a deeper level. It's called A PATH THROUGH SUFFERING. This is not a quick-fix book, but a treasury of principles built on the foundation of Scripture. It will change the way you live your life.

For more information on how to purchase the book, or the large-print edition, you can call us here at 1-800-759-4JOY. Or you can write to us at Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Have you found us online yet? You'll find everything there is to know about Gateway to Joy on our Web site. That address again is gatewaytojoy.org. Gateway to Joy is a listener-supported production of Back to the Bible.

Elisabeth answers questions from the audience tomorrow, so I hope you'll join us then for another Gateway to Joy.