I've always liked Elisabeth Elliott, and benefited greatly from her wisdom and straightforward exhortation. Her logic exposes terrible contradictions between what I say I believe about God, and what my actions convey is really in my heart. She has taught me that if I really believe the sovereign goodness of God, I can trust and be content in many a situation.
I found her chapter on "moods" a bit disconcerting though. It's this quote from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest that I found so troubling:
There are certain things we must not pray about--moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its set in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition, never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we would not. The curse with most of us is that we won't. The Christian life is one of incarnate spiritual pluck.
Are we not to pray in ever circumstance? Even if moods are merely physical, we should of course pray! But I am more and more convinced of the interconnection among the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms. I insist that very rarely are moods merely the result of physical triggers, but usually a combination of many factors. Perhaps what Chambers is trying to speak against here is the "praying and doing nothing" approach, which clearly is also incomplete. I will be the first to (grudgingly) admit that moods are overcome by prayer, planning, and then often "faking it til you make it" or doing what is right even without feeling like it.
I was relieved when Elliott immediately quotes JF Starck:
Lord! When I am in sorrow, I think on Thee. Listen to the cry of my heart, and my sorrowful complaint. yet, O Father, I would not prescribe to Thee when and how Thy help should come. I will willingly tarry for the hour which Thou thyself has appointed for my relief. Meanwhile strengthen me by Thy Holy Spirit; strengthen my faith, my hope, my trust; give me patience and resolution to bear my trouble, and let me at last behold the time when Thou wilt make me glad with Thy grace. Ah, my Father! never yet hast Though forsaken Thy children, forsake not me. Ever dost Thou give gladness unto the sorrowful, O give it now unto me. Always dost Thou relieve the wretched, relieve me too, when and where and how Thou wilt. Unto Thy wisdom, love, and goodness, I leave it utterly. Amen.
I admit these two consecutive quotes strike me as a contradiction. But I will take it as a good lesson: fight, and pray.
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