Passion and Purity

The book currently wrecking my life is Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot. I seriously don't think my life will ever be the same after reading this book. I finished it, and immediately picked it back up again to re-read it. I had to share some of the quotes that have been smacking me in the face (in the best way possible!).

• "I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts."
• "But the things we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about, at least until we have talked them over thoroughly with God."
• "The greater the potential for good, the greater the potential for evil."
• "A good and perfect gift, these natural desires. But so much the more necessary that they be restrained, controlled, corrected, even crucified, that they might be reborn in power and purity for God."
• "I cannot love you if I love not Him. I cannot love Him, if I love not you."
• "I wait. Dear Lord, Thy ways are past finding out, Thy love too high. O hold me still beneath Thy shadow. It is enough that Thou lift up the light of Thy countenance. I wait because I am commanded so to do. My mind is filled with wonderings. My soul asks 'Why?' But then the quiet word, 'Wait thou only Upon God.' And so, not even for the light to show a step ahead, but for thee, dear Lord, I wait."
• "We are not meant to die merely in order to be dead. God could not want that for the creatures to whom He has given the breath of life. We die in order to live."
• "Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. He will not necessarily protect us-not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process."
• "The hope was always there that God's will would bring us together. It might not be that, I knew, and I realized that the deeper spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done."
• "If you love someone, there are many things you will do for that person because you love him-not because it's what you'd prefer if love did not enter the picture. The fact is, love has entered the picture. Therefore, in your heart, you can be very honest when you tell Him you really prefer to do what He wants, because, more than your own pleasure, you want His. When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him. If I can say yes to that question, can't I say yes to pleasing Him? Can't I say yes even if it means a sacrifice? A little quiet reflection will remind me that yes to God always leads in the end to joy."