Abraham’s faith seemed to be in complete agreement with the power and constant faithfulness of Jehovah. By looking at the outer circumstances in which he was placed, he had no reason to expect the fulfillment of God’s promise. Yet he believed the Word of the Lord and looked forward to the time when his descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky” (Genesis 26:4).

Dear soul, you have not been given only one promise, like Abraham, but a thousand promises. And you have been given the example of many faithful believers as a pattern for your life. Therefore it is simply to your advantage to rely with confidence upon the Word of God. And although He may delay in sending His help, and the evil you are experiencing may seem to become worse and worse, do not be weak. Instead, be strong and rejoice, for God usually steps forward to save us when we least expect it, fulfilling His most glorious promises in a miraculous way.

He generally waits to send His help until the time of our greatest need, so that His hand will be plainly seen in our deliverance. He chooses this method so we will not trust anything that we may see or feel, as we are so prone to do, but will place our trust solely on His Word—which we may always depend upon, no matter our circumstance. C. H. VON BOGATZKY

Remember, the very time for faith to work is when our sight begins to fail. And the greater the difficulties, the easier it is for faith to work, for as long as we can see certain natural solutions to our problems, we will not have faith. Faith never works as easily as when our natural prospects fail. GEORGE MUELLER

When my little son was about ten years old, his grandmother promised him a stamp collecting album for Christmas. Christmas came and went with no stamp album and no word from Grandma. The matter, however, was not mentioned, until his friends came to see his Christmas presents. I was astonished, after he had listed all the gifts he had received, to hear him add, “And a stamp album from my grandmother.”

After hearing this several times, I called my son to me and said, “But, George, you didn’t get a stamp album from Grandma. Why did you say you did?”

With a puzzled look on his face, as if I had asked a very strange question, he replied, “Well, Mom, Grandma said, and that is the same as.” Not a word from me would sway his faith.

A month passed and nothing else was said about the album. Finally one day, to test his faith and because I wondered in my own heart why the album had not been sent, I said, “George, I think Grandma has forgotten her promise.”

“Oh no, Mom,” he quickly and firmly responded. “She hasn’t.” I watched his sweet, trusting face, which for a while looked very serious, as if he were debating the possibility I had suggested. Soon his face brightened as he said, “Do you think it would do any good for me to write Grandma, thanking her for the album?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “but you might try it.” A rich spiritual truth then began to dawn on me.

In a few minutes a letter was written and mailed, as George went off whistling his confidence in his grandma. Soon a letter from Grandma arrived with this message:

My dear George, I have not forgotten my promise to you for a stamp album. I could not find the one you wanted here, so I ordered one from New York. It did not arrive until after Christmas, and it was not the right one. I then ordered another, but it still has not arrived. I have decided to send you thirty dollars instead so that you may buy the one you want in Chicago. Your loving Grandma.

As he read the letter, his face was the face of a victor. From the depths of a heart that never doubted came the words, “Now, Mom, didn’t I tell you?” George “against all hope . . . in hope believed” (Romans 4:18) that the stamp album would come. And while he was trusting, Grandma was working, and in due time faith became sight.

It is only human to want to see before we step out on the promises of God. Yet our Savior said to Thomas and to a long list of doubters who have followed, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). MRS. ROUNDS

I will never forget the statement which that great man of faith George Mueller once made to a gentleman who had asked him the best way to have strong faith: “The only way to know strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm through severe testings.”

How true this is! You must trust when all else fails.

Dear soul, you may scarcely realize the value of your present situation. If you are enduring great afflictions right now, you are at the source of the strongest faith. God will teach you during these dark hours to have the most powerful bond to His throne you could ever know, if you will only submit.

“Don’t be afraid; just believe” (Mark 5:36). But if you ever are afraid, simply look up and say, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” (Psalm 56:3). Then you will be able to thank God for His school of sorrow that became for you the school of faith. A. B. SIMPSON

Great faith must first endure great trials.

God’s greatest gifts come through great pain. Can we find anything of value in the spiritual or the natural realm that has come about without tremendous toil and tears? Has there ever been any great reform, any discovery benefiting humankind, or any soul-awakening revival, without the diligence and the shedding of blood of those whose sufferings were actually the pangs of its birth? For the temple of God to be built, David had to bear intense afflictions. And for the gospel of grace to be extricated from Jewish tradition, Paul’s life had to be one long agony.

Take heart, O weary, burdened one, bowed down Beneath your cross; Remember that your greatest gain may come Through greatest loss.

Your life is nobler for a sacrifice, And more divine.

Acres of blooms are crushed to make a drop Of perfume fine.

Because of storms that lash the ocean waves, The waters there Keep purer than if the heavens o’er head Were always fair.

The brightest banner of the skies floats not At noonday warm; The rainbow follows after thunder clouds, And after storm.

It is a little thing to trust God as far as we can see Him, as far as the way lies open before us; but to trust Him when we are hedged in on every side and can see no way to escape, this is good and acceptable with God. This is the faith of Abraham, our father.

“Under . . . hopeless circumstances he hopefully believed” (Romans 4:18 WNT).

Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, once said: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.”

The greatest men, without God, are nothing but dismal failures.

The devil may wall you ’round But he cannot roof you in; He may fetter your feet and tie your hands And strive to hamper your soul with bands As his way has ever been; But he cannot hide the face of God And the Lord shall be your light, And your eyes and your thoughts can rise to the sky, Where His clouds and His winds and His birds go by, And His stars shine out at night.

The devil may wall you ’round; He may rob you of all things dear, He may bring his hardest and roughest stone And thinks to cage you and keep you alone, But he may not press too near; For the Lord has planted a hedge inside, And has made it strong and tall, A hedge of living and growing green; And ever it mounts and keeps between The trusting soul and the devil’s wall.

The devil may wall you ’round, But the Lord’s hand covers you, And His hedge is a thick and thorny hedge, And the devil can find no entering wedge Nor get his finger through; He may circle about you all day long, But he cannot work as he would, For the will of the Lord restrains his hand, And he cannot pass the Lord’s command And his evil turns to good.

The devil may wall you ’round, With his gray stones, row on row, But the green of the hedge is fresh and fair, And within its circle is space to spare, And room for your soul to grow; The wall that shuts you in May be hard and high and stout, But the Lord is sun and the Lord is dew, And His hedge is coolness and shade for you, And no wall can shut Him out.

When God is going to do something wonderful, He begins with a difficulty. If it is going to be something very wonderful, He begins with an impossibility. CHARLES INWOOD

O God of the impossible! Since all things are to Thee But soil in which Omnipotence Can work almightily, Each trial may to us become The means that will display How o’er what seems impossible Our God hath perfect sway!

The very storms that beat upon Our little bark so frail, But manifest Thy power to quell All forces that assail.

The things that are to us too hard, The foes that are too strong, Are just the very ones that may Awake a triumph song.

O God of the impossible, When we no hope can see, Grant us the faith that still believes all possible to Thee! J. H. S.