“I have been married for six weeks,” writes a reader, “and I look back to about a year and a half ago when I read Passion and Purity for the fourth time. This time was different—I kept from resisting your words in this book. I thought, ‘Yes, I will bring my lovelife into submission under God’s authority!’ I began to pray to God for His will. I was not dating anyone, but I was praying fervently for one man I knew—not with my usual attitude of lust, but with an attitude of wanting God’s will in his life, whether it be me or not. I made no advances or hints but left the relationship totally in God’s hand if He desired it. What a joy it is to say, ‘God have Your way and Your complete timing in my life.’
“Passion and Purity changed my whole idea that ‘I deserved someone’ into ‘God’s grace is all I need.’ I married the man I had been praying for. And I see the great value in starting out our relationship under God’s authority. We have both grown to know Him so much this year. I shared Passion and Purity with a good friend. She began to pray and leave her lovelife up to God. This resulted in a break-up, but soon after God brought a very godly man into her life. They will soon be married.
“I am not saying, ‘Just follow the Passion and Purity formula and you will find yourself married.’ I am saying being in submission to God far outdoes any joy given by chasing our own whims.”
A young man who had read the same book writes, “God taught me that preparing for marriage is not so much a matter of finding the right person as it is becoming the right person. I began concentrating on my relationship with Christ and waiting on the Lord for His woman for me and His timing. It was quite a relief to me to realize that I didn’t have to date my entire Christian campus and use the process of elimination to find the right one! Not long after I had laid my desires on the altar, God brought into my life a wonderful young lady and we’ll be married soon.”
**Excerpt originally published in the Sept/Oct 1988 Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter.