Explore Quotes by Elisabeth Elliot

The difficulty is to keep a tight reign on our emotions. They may remain, but it is not they who are to rule the action. They have no authority. A life lived in God is not lived on the plane of the feelings, but of the will. In Scripture the heart is the will - the man himself, the spring of all action, the ruling power bestowed on him by his Creator, capable of choosing and acting.

Accept your loneliness. It is one stage, and only one stage, on a journey that brings you to God. It will not always last. Offer up your loneliness to God, as the little boy offered to Jesus his five loaves and two fishes. God can transform it for the good of others. Above all, do something for somebody else!

A prayerful heart and an obedient heart will learn, very slowly and not without sorrow, to stake everything on God Himself.

The deepest lessons come out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires.

It is impossible to love deeply without sacrifice.

I am convinced that the human heart hungers for constancy. In forfeiting the sanctity of sex by casual, nondiscriminato ry "making out" and "sleeping around," we forfeit something we cannot well do without. There is dullness, monotony, sheer boredom in all of life when virginity and purity are no longer protected and prized.

God has promised to supply all our needs. What we don't have now, we don't need now.

True faith goes into operation when there are no answers.

A whole lot of what we call 'struggling' is simply delayed obedience.

New Year's Day is a good time to fix one's eyes on the only One who knows what the year is to hold.

Remind me that not everything needs to be said, and that there are very few things that need to be said by me.

Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy.

Among the most joyful people I have known have been some who seem to have had no human reason for joy. The sweet fragrance of Christ has shown through their lives.

Blessings taken for granted are often forgotten.

I'm convinced that there is nothing that can happen to me in this life that is not precisely designed by a sovereign Lord to give me the opportunity to learn to know Him.

Muddled thinking inevitably results in muddled living

Experience has taught me that the Shepherd is far more willing to show His sheep the path than the sheep are to follow. He is endlessly merciful, patient, tender, and loving. If we, His stupid and wayward sheep, really want to be led, we will without fail be led. Of that I am sure.

Is the distinction between living for Christ and dying for Him so great? Is not the second the logical conclusion of the first?

We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves

My most earnest of all pleas to singles is abandonment of the self, surrender to Christ of all unfulfilled longings, an unequivocal willingness to receive whatever God assigns, and a determination to practice the sacrificial principle of Isaiah 58:10-11. Life becomes not only far simpler, but surprisingly joyful and free.

...Ponnammal set the example for the others by quietly doing what they did not care to do. Her spirit created a new climate in the place, and the time came when there was not one nurse who would refuse to do whatever needed to be done.