Dear Friends,
Yesterday in church I was talking with a member who had just lost
his job. Although I was impressed with his positive attitude regarding his
situation-he indicated he already had several offers of a new job- I still
recognized that it is not always easy to lose one’s job, even if one can see
something better down the road.
In the course of our conversation, I shared with him that there is
always going to be some unexpected challenge lurking around the next corner of
our lives, and when it comes, we need to be prepared and prayed up.
Like baseball managers who are hired to be fired, there may come a
time in our lives when we face some unexpected surprise -perhaps like the loss
of a job- that has the potential to rock us to our very core.
In talking with my friend, I mentioned a resource that has
been a constant ministry companion of mine, one which has often provided a
welcome source of encouragement and spiritual support through challenging
times. It is a devotional book called Streams in the Desert.
I have seldom opened its pages and not found something that
would minister to my deepest need. Next to the Bible, Streams in the Desert
has probably been the most frequently read book in my library.
Streams in the Desert is a devotional of 365 daily
thoughts that offer the soul refreshment both in the good and bad times of
life. It is a compilation of writing by some of the great spiritual saints of
the past and edited by L. B. Cowman.
A short while ago I read the following
“Glorify ye the Lord in the fires.” (Isaiah 24: 15 KJV)
“Notice the little word “in”! We are to honor the Lord in the
trial- in the very thing that afflicts us. And although there are examples
where God did not allow his Saints to even feel the fire, usually the fire
causes pain.”
“It is precisely there, in the heat of the fire, we are to glorify
Him. We do this by exercising perfect faith in His goodness and love that has
permitted the trial to come upon us. Even more, we are to believe that out of
the fire will arise something more worthy of praise to Him then had we never
experienced it.”
“To go through some fires will take great faith, for little faith
will fail. We must win the victory in the furnace.” Margaret Bottome.
“A person has only as much faith as he shows in times of trouble.
The three men who were thrown into the fiery furnace came out just as they went
in - except for the ropes that had bound them. How often God removes our
shackles in the furnace of affliction!”
“This is the way Christians should come out of the furnace of
fiery trials- liberated from their shackles but untouched by the flames.”
Triumphing over them in it. Colossians 2: 15
KJV
“This is the real triumph-triumphing over sickness in it,
triumphing over death in dying, and triumphing over other adverse circumstances
in them. Believe me, there is power that can make us victors in the conflict.”
(April 3)
If you are looking for a source of spiritual comfort and
encouragement, a book that will help you triumph in and through the storms of
life, this is a book you need on your bookshelf.
And yes, I will add that you seldom will find a book that has a
4.8 rating among thousands of reviewers, and no, the only profit I make from
encouraging its purchase is the satisfaction of knowing you will now be better
prepared to face the challenges of your tomorrows.
Yours in faith and friendship,
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