Introduction: The Power to Choose
- Elliot introduces her theme: "My topic this morning is choose your attitude".
- She references a quote kept over her typewriter: "Let nothing trouble you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass away. God never changes".
- She highlights Jesus' words, "Let not your heart be troubled," noting that the word "let" implies a command and a choice.
- The antidote to a troubled heart is faith: "Believe in God. Believe also in me".
Commands as Choices of Attitude
- "Love your enemies": Elliot describes this as an "unequivocal command" with "no Fire escapes".
- "Be content": She notes this is difficult, particularly for women who often focus on what they don't have, yet "God has apportioned to us exactly [what] he knows is necessary".
- "Be anxious for what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing". She instructs that when anxiety rises, one must "make up your mind that you're going to leave this completely in the hands of the Lord".
- "Make my joy complete": Drawing from Philippians 2, she lists imperatives like being like-minded and considering others "better than yourselves".
The Mind of Christ as the Standard
- The central mandate: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus".
- The call to "arm yourselves also with the same attitude" specifically in the context of suffering.
- The Example of Fanny Crosby:
- Blinded as an infant, she wrote at age nine: "Oh, what a happy soul am I. Although I cannot see. I am resolved that in this world contented I will be".
- She chose not to "weep and sigh" over her blindness.
- Application for Today: Elliot shares a prisoner’s paraphrase of Crosby’s poem, showing that contentment is a choice regardless of physical freedom.
- The Struggle with Hypocrisy: Elliot admits the temptation to feel like a hypocrite when trying to choose a good attitude while still feeling "needled" inside.
- The Solution: Commitment and confession. She relies on Isaiah 50:7: "The Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore, have I set my face like a flint".
Point 1: The Cost of Choosing Your Attitude
- The Humility of Christ: Jesus, Lord of the universe, "consented, accepted the will of his father by becoming a helpless baby".
- He underwent the total "subjugation of the will" to both His heavenly Father and His earthly mother.
- The Example of Mary:
- Her defining attitude: "Be it unto me according to thy word".
- Elliot suggests Mary gave an immediate "yes" while others might have said, "Not me. Not me".
- This should be the believer's motto, especially when circumstances "cut across our preferences".
- Jesus’ Identification with Humanity:
- He accepted the limitations of being a man—getting tired, hungry, and thirsty.
- He "received help from ordinary human beings" and chose an "attitude of submission".
- The Necessity of Prayer:
- Jesus got up "very early in the morning" to commune with God.
- Elliot urges listeners to do the same, citing her father’s example of getting up between 4:30 and 5:00 AM.
- The Heart of a Servant:
- Jesus was "among you as one who serves," performing the "dirtiest job" of washing feet.
- The Principle of the Cross:
- Referencing Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, she notes that those who sacrificed their bread for others in concentration camps were most likely to survive.
- "Life comes out of death... The principle of the cross is sacrifice".
- Jesus "made himself nothing".
Point 2: The Specifics of Daily Life
- Mothering as a Privilege and Sacrifice:
- It involves an "upheaval" and "putting yourself at the disposal of other people" in an exacting way.
- Elliot compares this to Jesus putting Himself at the disposal of the "multitudes that were always after him".
- Wives and Submission:
- Elliot calls this "probably the hardest thing in the world that all of us have to face".
- The command is to "submit yourselves to your husbands" regardless of whether they are "behaving like Jesus".
- She shares her personal history of submitting to "three very, very different men" (Jim Elliot, Addison Leech, and Lars Gren).
- Submission is based on the mystery of marriage representing "the mystery of Christ in the church".
- Handling Injustice and Moodiness:
- She quotes François Fénelon: "Accustom yourself to unreasonableness and injustice. Abide in peace in the presence of God who sees all these evils more clearly than you do and who permits them".
- She warns against the "silent treatment," calling it a "wicked instrument".
The Invitation and the Yoke
- Jesus is a gentleman who "knocks and he waits for entrance".
- He offers rest, but it requires taking His "yoke".
- The Double Yoke: Elliot visualizes a double yoke where the believer bends their neck to walk in harmony with Jesus.
- The Miracle of a Changed Attitude:
- Elliot tells a story of a woman who was ready to divorce her husband but was transformed by the directive to "treat everybody as though that person were Jesus Christ".
- By treating her husband as Christ, the woman’s marriage was "transformed".
Point 3: The Mind of Christ in Action
- Elliot quotes Philippians 2:12-18, emphasizing: "Do everything without complaining or arguing".
- She shares a letter from a woman whose marriage was transformed not by her husband changing, but by God changing her.
- God as the Counselor:
- Elliot urges listeners: "Don't go anywhere until you've spent time on your knees at the foot of the cross".
- The woman in the letter discovered that "choosing to live these verses... felt like torture," but once she did, "God's peace swept in".
- Conclusion: Elliot encourages the audience to "Just do the next thing" to enable the Lord to help them choose their attitude.