These words from Mrs. Charles Cowman speak strength to my soul:
"I
had fainted unless……!' (Psalm 27:13.)
"FAINT
NOT!" HOW great is the temptation at this point! How the soul sinks, the heart
grows sick, and the faith staggers under the keen trials and testings which come
into our lives in times of special bereavement and suffering.
"I
cannot bear up any longer, I am fainting under this providence. What shall I do?
God tells me not to faint. But what can one do when he is fainting?"
What
do you do when you are about to faint physically? You cannot do anything. You
cease from your own doings. In your faintness, you fall upon the shoulder of
some strong loved one. You lean hard. You rest. You lie still and trust.
It
is so when we are tempted to faint under affliction. God's message to us is not,
"Be strong and of good courage," for He knows our strength and courage have fled
away. But it is that sweet word, "Be still, and know that I am God."
Hudson
Taylor was so feeble in the closing months of his life that he wrote a dear
friend: "I am so weak I cannot write; I cannot read my Bible; I cannot even
pray. I can only lie still in God's arms like a little child, and trust."
This
wondrous man of God with all his spiritual power came to a place of physical
suffering and weakness where he could only lie still and trust.
And
that is all God asks of you, His dear child, when you grow faint in the fierce
fires of affliction. Do not try to be strong. Just be still and know that He is
God, and will sustain you, and bring you through.
"God
keeps His choicest cordials for our deepest faintings."
"Stay
firm and let thine heart take courage." (Psa. 27:14─After Osterwald.)
Stay
firm, He has not failed thee In all the past,
And will He go and leave thee To
sink at last?
Nay, He said He will hide thee Beneath His wing;
And sweetly there
in safety Thou mayest sing.
─Selected.
Grateful
