While recently browsing books, I came across Elisabeth Elliot’s Be Still My Soul: Reflections on Living the Christian Life. Perhaps because God’s peace is one of the most meaningful aspects of Christian living for me, and something I seek and write about often, the book quickly grabbed my attention as a “must-read.”
It did not disappoint.
Be Still My Soul proves why Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015) is regarded as one of the most perceptive and popular Christian writers of the 20th century. She writes with a simple yet profound eloquence that causes us to slow down, ponder deeply, and draw closer to God.
This short book is divided into easily readable chapters with headings that touch on a variety of topics. In a chapter titled “Helps to Holiness,” a section called “Trust and Obey” begins:
There is in each of us a kind of homelessness, a deep, unspoken, inexpressible longing for a safe place away from the clamor. Without God, most of the world tries to satisfy that longing with more money, more leisure, more things. Christians know that is futile, and yet we too hold back from choosing to cling to Him with single-hearted determination.
Another section called “Self-Effacement” in the chapter “A Servant Heart,” begins:
When I get to heaven, I want to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” not “good job, excellent and committed CEO.” In spite of the clamor of society around us, the urgings to succeed and conquer, I would rather emulate my fellow believers who have taken the narrow, lower way.
Throughout the book Elliot shares her reflections on many aspects of Christian living, including peace, God’s love, suffering, holiness, prayer, and walking with Jesus.
She has a wonderful way of seamlessly interspersing personal stories and struggles with scripture, thereby relating the big picture of how she has come to view God’s sovereign plan over her life.
If you struggle with the frantic pace of busyness in our can’t-stop world, this book offers an inspiring collection of reflections on living a life that is “far less about doing than it is about receiving grace, peace, and rest for our weary souls.”
Learning to be still, and leaving our anxieties and cares in the hands of a loving God, is what we are called to do, Elliot says. Here, she helps us do just that.
I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to go deeper with the Lord. I know I will return to it again.
Be Still My Soul portrays with simplicity and grace the beauty and wonder of learning to rest in God.
With God, Doers have to learn to become Be-ers. Becoming still to enter His presence is an art that often challenges the soul. “Busy” is a god that so many worship without thinking!
Indeed! Good insight.