# “What are arrows for but to shoot?” by Jim Elliot

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2014/01/10/what-are-arrows-for-but-to-shoot-by-jim-elliot/
- Published: 2014-01-10T12:00:50-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“I do not wonder that you were saddened at the word of my going to South America.
This is nothing else than what the Lord Jesus warned us of when He told the disciples
that they must become so infatuated with the kingdom and following Him that all 
other allegiances must become as though they were not.

And He never excluded the family tie. In fact, those loves which we regard as closest,
He told us must become as hate in comparison with our desires to uphold His cause.
Grieve not, then, if your sons seem to desert you, but rejoice, rather, seeing the
will of God done gladly.

Remember how the Psalmist described children? He said that they were as a heritage
from the Lord, and that every man should be happy who had his quiver full of them.
And what is a quiver full of but arrows?

And what are arrows for but to shoot? So, with the strong arms of prayer, draw the
bowstring back and let the arrows fly–all of them, straight at the Enemy’s hosts.

‘Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious, Give of they wealth to speed them
on their way, Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious, And all thou spendest
Jesus will repay.'”

–Jim Elliot, in Elisabeth Elliot, [_Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot_](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1598562495/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1598562495&linkCode=as2&tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1958/2008), 182-183. Elliot wrote these words to his parents
after telling them he was going to the mission field. He was martyred in Ecuador
on January 8, 1956.

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