Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Speaker 1

Joni has a great lesson from Elizabeth Elliot today. Hi, I'm Shawna On Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing home.

Speaker 2

You will remember Elizabeth as the young missionary who went to a South American jungle with her husband Jim and two-year-old daughter to reach the Auca Indians for Christ. They were only there a matter of months when the Indians speared Jim Elliot and his missionary companions to death. Elizabeth, still a newlywed, was filled with grief, and yet she remained true to the call God had placed on her life and gems. She decided to stay in the jungle with her daughter to carry on the work. Her story made headlines around the world, and although she never would have planned it this way, God ended up using Elizabeth's testimony to reach an entire generation for Christ.

But looking back, you gotta wonder just how did this young woman do it? How did she move forward through her imposing wall of grief? Well, let me quote from Elizabeth herself. She writes, "Do you find yourself on Monday morning feeling like your soul is scorched or terribly aware of your inadequacies and fearful of what is to come? Since God is still in heaven, just carry on and do the next thing. Take the next step of obedience. Do you worry how your children will turn out or how the finances will look at the end of the month? Resist the allure of self-pity and just do the next thing. We are given enough grace just for the next step. So do not fret about what lies around the bend. Faithfully take the next step and you will make it home safely in the end."

Wow, that advice is so like Elizabeth Elliot. And you know, she was inspired by an anonymous poem that she had read during her time of grief, and it is called, as you might guess, "Do the Next Thing" from an old English parsonage.

"Down by the sea there came in the twilight a message to me. Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven hath it seems to me a teaching from heaven. And on through the doors the quiet words ring like a low inspiration. Do the next thing. Many a questioning, many a fear, many a doubt hath its quieting here. Moment by moment let down from heaven time, opportunity, and guidance are given. Fear not tomorrows, child of the King. Trust them with Jesus and do the next thing. Do it immediately, do it with prayer, do it reliantly, casting all care. Do it with reverence, tracing his hand who placed it before thee with earnest command. Stayed on omnipotence, safe neath his wing. Leave results to Jesus and do the next thing. Look to the Savior, ever serener, working or suffering, be thy demeanor in his dear presence, the rest of his calm, the light of his countenance still be thy psalm, strong in his faithfulness. Praise and sing. Then as he beckons, do the next thing."

I hope that little poem blesses you as it has me. It certainly blessed Elizabeth. And if you are suffering some deep affliction and you feel emotionally stuck with no strength to go on, if you feel like collapsing but you know that would be giving in, then do, please, do the next load of laundry, or do the next lesson in your Bible study, or do the next pile of bills on your checkbook. Move forward, never backward. Take life one step at a time like Elizabeth Elliot, and soon you will find strength not only for the rest of the day, but a bright, a very bright hope for tomorrow.

Speaker 1

Friend, were you blessed by Elizabeth's poem? Then download it today@joniradio.org.