from Streams in the Desert, by Lettie Cowman

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the 
breaking of the day (
Genesis 32:24).

God is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God. It was 
the Son of man, the Angel of the Covenant. It was God in human form pressing
down and pressing out the old Jacob life; and ere the morning broke, God had 
prevailed and Jacob fell with his thigh dislocated. But as he fell, he fell
into the arms of God, and there he clung and wrestled, too, until the 
blessing came; and the new life was born and he arose from the earthly to 
the heavenly,
the human to the divine, the natural to the supernatural. And as he went 
forth that morning he was a weak and broken man, but God was there instead; 
and
the heavenly voice proclaimed, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but 
Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast 
prevailed."

Beloved, this must ever be a typical scene in every transformed life. There 
comes a crisis-hour to each of us, if God has called us to the highest and
best, when all resources fail; when we face either ruin or something higher 
than we ever dreamed; when we must have infinite help from God and yet, ere
we can have it, we must let something go; we must surrender completely; we 
must cease from our own wisdom. strength, and righteousness, and become
crucified with Christ
and alive in Him. God knows how to lead us up to this crisis, and He knows 
how to lead us through.

Is He leading you thus? Is this the meaning of your deep trial, or your 
difficult surroundings, or that impossible situation or that trying place 
through
which you cannot go without Him, and yet you have not enough of Him to give 
you the victory?

Oh, turn to Jacob's God! Cast yourself helplessly at His feet. Die to your 
strength and wisdom in His loving arms and rise, like Jacob, into His 
strength
and all-sufficiency. There is no way out of your hard and narrow place but 
at the top. You must get deliverance by rising higher and coming into a new
experience with God. Oh, may it bring you into all that is meant by the 
revelation of the Mighty One of Jacob! There is no way out but God.

At Thy feet I fall,
Yield Thee Up My ALL,
To suffer LIVE, OR DIE
For my Lord crucified.
Streams in the Desert

I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place (Isaiah 18:4,RV).

Assyria was marching against Ethiopia, the people of which are described as 
tall and smooth. And as the armies advance, God makes no effort to arrest 
them;
it seems as though they will be allowed to work their will. He is still 
watching them from His dwelling place, the sun still shines on them; but 
before
the harvest, the whole of the proud army of Assyria is smitten as easily as 
when sprigs are cut off by the pruning hook of the husbandman.

Is not this a marvelous conception of God--being still and watching? His 
stillness is not acquiescence. His silence is not consent. He is only biding 
His
time, and will arise, in the most opportune moment, and when the designs of 
the wicked seem on the point of success, to overwhelm them with disaster. As
we look out on the evil of the world; as we think of the apparent success of 
wrong-doing; as we wince beneath the oppression of those that hate us, let
us remember these marvelous words about God being still and beholding.

There is another side to this. Jesus beheld His disciples toiling at the 
oars through the stormy night; and watched though unseen, the successive 
steps
of the anguish of Bethany, when Lazarus slowly passed through the stages of 
mortal sickness, until he succumbed and was borne to the rocky tomb. But He
was only waiting the moment when He could interpose most effectually.

Is He still to thee? He is not unobservant; He is beholding all things; He 
has His finger on thy pulse, keenly sensitive to all its fluctuations. He 
will
come to save thee when the precise moment has arrived.
--Daily Devotional Commentary

Whatever His questions or His reticences, we may be absolutely sure of an 
unperplexed and undismayed Saviour.

O troubled soul, beneath the rod,
Thy Father speaks, be still, be still;
Learn to be silent unto God,
And let Him mould thee to His will.
O praying soul, be still, be still,
He cannot break His plighted Word;
Sink down into His blessed will,
And wait in patience on the Lord.
O waiting soul, be still, be strong,
And though He tarry, trust and wait;
Doubt not, He will not wait too long,
Fear not, He will not come too late.

Streams in the Desert

Courageous faith
"And it shall
come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear
the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the
waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the
waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon a heap." (Joshua 3:13).

Brave Levites! Who can help admiring them, to carry the Ark right
into the stream; for the waters were not divided till their feet dipped
in the water (ver. 15). God had not promised aught else. God honors
faith. "Obstinate faith," that the PROMISE sees and "looks to that
alone." You can fancy how the people would watch these holy men march
on, and some of the bystanders would be saying, "You would not catch me
running that risk! Why, man, the ark will be carried away!" Not so;
"the priests stood firm on dry ground." We must not overlook the fact
that faith on our part helps God to carry out His plans. "Come up to the help of the Lord."

The Ark had staves for the shoulders. Even the Ark did not move of
itself; it was carried. When God is the architect, men are the masons
and laborers. Faith assists God. It can stop the mouth of lions and
quench the violence of fire. It yet honors God, and God honors it. Oh,
for this faith that will go on, leaving God to fulfill His promise when
He sees fit! Fellow Levites, let us shoulder our load, and do not let
us look as if we were carrying God's coffin. It is the Ark of the
living God! Sing as you march towards the flood!
--Thomas Champness
(from Streams in the Desert, by Lettie Cowman)

Overcoming melancholy

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God. - Psalm 42:11

Commit thy way to God,
The weight which makes thee faint;
Worlds are to Him no load,
To Him breathe thy complaint.

Up! up! the day is breaking,
Say to thy cares, good-night!
Thy troubles from thee shaking,
Like dreams in day's fresh light.
PAUL GERHARDT


When you find yourself, as I dare say you sometimes do, overpowered as
it were by melancholy, the best way is to go out, and do something kind
to somebody or other.
JOHN BLE


It is impossible to persevere in the path of holiness, if we give not
ourselves to it with joy. The love of God should impart peace to the
soul.
MADAME DE GUYON

(from Joy and Strength, by Mary Wilder Tileston)

"I will make all my mountains a way" (Isa.49:11).

God will make obstacles serve His purpose. We all have mountains in
our lives. There are people and things that threaten to bar our
progress in the Divine life. Those heavy claims, that uncongenial
occupation, that thorn in the flesh,
that daily cross--we think that if only these were removed we might
live purer, tenderer, holier lives; and often we pray for their
removal.

[But] these are the very conditions of
achievement; they have been put into our lives as the means to the very
graces and virtues for which we have been praying so long. Thou hast
prayed for patience through long years, but there is something that
tries thee beyond endurance; thou hast fled from it, evaded it,
accounted it an unsurmountable obstacle to the desired attainment, and
supposed that its removal would secure thy immediate deliverance and
victory.

Not so! Thou wouldest gain only the cessation of temptations to
impatience. But this would not be patience. Patience can be acquired
only through just such trials as now seem unbearable.

Go back; submit thyself. Claim to be a partaker in the patience of
Jesus. Meet thy trials in Him. There is nothing in life which harasses
and annoys that may not become subservient to the highest ends. They
are His mountains. He puts them there. We know that God will not fail
to keep His promise. "God understandeth the way thereof and knoweth the
place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under
the whole heaven"; and when we come to the foot of the mountains, we
shall find the way.--Christ in Isaiah, by Meyer

"The meaning of trial is not only to test worthiness, but to
increase it; as the oak is not only tested by the storm, but toughened
by them."
(from Streams in the Desert, by Lettie Cowman)