Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.
I only have one today, from an Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotional:
If my life is once surrendered, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine! ~ Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart
It’s absurd that we do that, isn’t it? We fear the possibility of some major catastrophe, or something serious happens to a loved one, or God allows something we don’t understand, and then we somehow feel we can protect ourselves better than He can. This set my thoughts running back through a previous post about being afraid to surrender all to Him. I hope it doesn’t sound self-indulgent or self-promotional to quote myself, but I tend to have to go back over some of the same lessons learned, and something I said in that post along these same lines was a good reminder to me:
There have been whole books written about reasons for suffering, and we hear testimonies of God’s grace through those times. Yet that lurking fear or reluctance can still snake into our thoughts.
As I was pondering these things this morning, the thought came, “What’s the alternative, really?” Suffering will come to most of us in some form or another. We live in a fallen world and deal with its effects; we’re not in heaven yet, where there are no tears, sorrow, pain. We’re not going to stop these things from coming into our lives if we don’t surrender to God. We can’t somehow insulate ourselves or protect ourselves from any pain or trial.
But if we are the Lord’s, we can trust that He has a purpose in what He has allowed. We can trust Him for His presence, peace, grace, and help. If we’re surrendered to Him, we can face these things in a way that we can’t otherwise.
I’m thankful we can “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.
Stray Thoughts 
The sermon in church yesterday was about suffering, so your post helps me continue to “chew on” this theme. Thank you.
Pingback: WiW: With my mind « bekahcubed
Oh, this quote hurts. I find myself doing that TOO often. I give Him my worries, but then I take them back to ponder on them some more, as if *my* ideas would be better than His. Crazy, huh? I went back to read your link in full; good thoughts there, too. Thanks, Barbara, for feeding me this morning what the Lord wants me to swallow…
That is a great quote. And it is absurd to think that we can handle our circumstances better than God can–yet we act that way all the time. So convicting!
I, like you, often find reading through my old posts to be a helpful reminder of what God has already brought me through–and is in the process of teaching me.
“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. Tagore
It IS ludicrous… and yet we all do it. This was a great reminder to ME… I’m certain it is to others as well.
You just reminded me of a song that sums up our behavior very clearly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QoGXAyFKYw