In the book “Devotedly,” – a book published this year containing letters written back and forth between Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, (if those names are new to you, you have some reading to do!) – I came across one of Jim’s letters that got me thinking.

You can gather Jim’s main thrust from reading what he wrote to Elisabeth on page 41, but I wanted to share something that encouraged me from a particular line he wrote. “Those sheep were destined for the altar, their pasture feeding had been for one purpose – to… fatten them for bloody sacrifice.”

My life at the moment can feel like a long succession of waiting and preparation. There’s a lot of feeding going on – the reading of books, studying, memorizing, improving my health, forming good habits, gaining skills, growing in walking with the Lord…

So I was encouraged when I read the point of feeding. Sheep that are meant for sacrifice are still fed. But the reason they’re fed is for sacrifice. Right now I’m being fed. But what is the purpose for my being fed? Is it to gain personal success? Is it for my personal benefit? Or could I make the point of my “feeding” sacrifice? If so, then even my studying and growing can be sacrifice to the Lord, as a preparation for future sacrifice: the offering of these resources to Him – for wherever and whenever and however He calls me to serve Him.

Maybe you are someone who is in a season of “feeding”? Then learn and grow and gain wisdom and skills so that as you present yourself to God as a living sacrifice, you may offer to Him the fruits of the preparation He has allowed you to have. At our funerals, would we be satisfied if what was spoken about our lives was that we were very successful, but the unspoken narrative (for people don’t like to speak ill of the dead) was that we were successful at all the wrong things? The things that won’t last past either our lifetime, or maybe at the very, very most, the limits of time? Let’s not sacrifice our skills and knowledge and life on the altar of personal ambition. Instead, let us present to God all that we have to offer, as a sacrifice for Him to use as He pleases for His glory and for His purposes.

“Calling is the truth that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to His summons and service.”

-Os Guinness

I often like to pray this prayer now before starting my studies for the day, since recently coming across it in “Devotedly,”:

“Lord, let not this day be one of

            earthly striving,

For knowledge puffeth up. O let it be

A quiet time of study in the Spirit,

My realm of intellect controlled by Thee.

As Thou didst use the hands of the lad Jesus

Plying His carpenter’s trade as given of Thee,

So use my mind. Through all this human learning

Hold Thou my thoughts in focus. Let them be

In earnest concentration, permeated

By the deep consciousness that I am Thine.

Direct my thinking. Give to me, O Father,

As Thou didst give to Jesus, such a mind.”

-Elisabeth Elliot

On page 24 of “Devotedly,” Valerie pointed out that when Elisabeth chose to enroll for further training (before becoming a missionary), that what it meant for Elisabeth’s life was “useful study while waiting for clearer direction on the specific part of the world in which God was calling her to serve Him.”

I underlined that line because it encouraged me through this season of “waiting.” It encouraged me that my current studies can indeed be “useful study” while waiting for further direction from the Lord. I can be faithful. I can focus on the things that are within arm’s reach while waiting on the Lord for what He wants for me in the future. Faithful with now, while praying and waiting for further marching orders.

-Annie

“…If I could express my one hope for compiling this book, my prayer is that these entries of theirs would call us to search faithfully for God in His Word. And upon discovering His unchanging, faithful, merciful, and loving character, I pray we would be more fully moved in obedience to Him that we too might leave a lasting legacy of faith as my parents did.”

-Valerie Elliot Shepard

How much can a person glean from the letters of a man and a woman in love? When that couple is as given over to the Lord as Jim and Elisabeth were – we can glean a lot.

Earlier this year, when I saw a new book out about Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, compiled and with additional commentary by their daughter Valerie, I couldn’t wait to start reading it! In the midst of their struggles and uncertainties, there is infused into their personal writings an unmistakable love and hunger for God and an intense desire for God’s will to be done in their lives – even if it be at the expense of their dearest, most heartfelt dreams. I have found great encouragement through getting this inside view of their thought processes and their constant efforts toward living lives of surrender to the Lord. The encouragements are not just regarding the relationship between a man and a woman in love. I have found encouragement far beyond that as the letters between this couple were not all-consumed with their love and longing for each other. They each – together as well as separate from the other – had a single eye for loving God, following His will, and living lives of service to Him. This is beautifully obvious in the letters they wrote.

I’d recommend this for young adults/adults (or ask your parent to approve it for you if you’re on the younger side or not sure if the time is right to read it).

-Annie

“I think His kindness toward her childlike prayer is so tender. ‘Lord, I am but a little child,’ she wrote at the time, ‘and know not how to go out or come in.’ She was somewhat hesitant to ask something so temporal of Him because she was afraid her own fleshly desire to be with my dad might outweigh her overriding prayer about constantly dying to self. But nothing outweighed being in moment-by-moment alignment with God and His purposes…

“This call to be still and wait on him for guidance was very real in my parents’ hearts, and I’m thankful for their example of spending at least an hour each day (often more) doing nothing else. Every letter and journal entry of theirs reveals this longing to be serious about prayer and sincerely seek God’s face. Therefore, I’m not surprised at all to read of my father’s continual watching for some kind of confirmation or direction before feeling free to pursue marriage.

“In fact, this observation leads to my second point, more general in nature: their devotion to Scripture…”

– Valerie Elliot Shepard

“Her only certainty in the matter was the assurance to ask, ‘Lord, rule my will and affections.’ As long as she devotedly maintained this point of surrender, she knew everything was sure of working toward God’s desired ends.”

– Valerie Elliot Shepard