2024 Fasting Devotional

(Opening Content from Streams in the Desert, L.B. Cowman, compiler)

“Your heavenly Father knows.”

Matthew 6:32

A visitor at a school for the deaf was writing questions on the board for the children. Soon he wrote this sentence: “Why has God made me able to hear and speak, and made you deaf?” The shocking sentence hit the children like a cruel slap on the face. They sat paralyzed, pondering the dreadful word “Why?”

And then a little girl arose. She walked up to the chalkboard and with tiny tears slowly welling up in her eyes, she picked up the chalk and wrote the words that she had studied in her last Sunday School class: “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight to do” (Matthew 11:26). What a reply! It reaches up and claims an eternal truth upon which the most mature believer, and even the youngest child of God, may securely rest—the truth that God is your Father [and what He has done is what is best for us]. ~ STREAMS IN THE DESERT

How challenging it is to come to a realization as profoundly painful as the one that little girl taught her class that day.  The realization that though we do not understand all of the ‘why’s’ of life, we are confident that somehow in the Divine Wisdom of God’s Providence they are all good.  We know they are good because they come from the heart of the Father.  Our Father is not a frivolous parent who carelessly engages with his family, nor is He an absent father who is oblivious to the cares and needs of his children.  No, our Father is the very God who created the world and the life that you and I live.  He is the One who formed our bodies according to the enormity of His great Love for us.  Our Father is the One who causes us to see the beauty of His wondrous love through the lens of the pains and tragedies that we face.  He is the One who makes us strong by the heavy weights He helps us to bear, and He anchors our souls and causes the ships of our life to hold fast while being battered by the fiercest of storms.  This is our Heavenly Father.

An old seaman once said, “In fierce storms we must do one thing, for there is only one way to survive: “We must put the ship in a certain position, drop anchor and hold her there.” And this is precisely what you and I must do. Sometimes, like the Apostle Paul on his journey to Rome, you cannot see the sun or the stars to help you navigate when the storm is bearing down on you. This is when you can do only one thing, for there is only one way. Reason cannot help you, because there is no logic that can adequately explain why you are facing the mountain that is before you.  Past experiences will shed no light, because you are now at a place that you have never been before. In cases like this, friends with all of their noble and kind intentions often bring little consolation, because no one truly understands what you feel, for they have not faced the danger that now stares you in the eye.  Only one course of action remains: you must place your soul in one position and bear it steadily and unwaveringly before the Lord. You must anchor yourself steadfastly upon your God and trust that He has done that which is best.

And then, come what may—whether wind, waves, rough seas, thunder, lightning, or jagged rocks — you must lock yourself in the helm of the ship, firmly holding to your confidence in God’s faithfulness, and His everlasting love in Christ Jesus and ride out the storm.

What an amazing truth this is.  It is simple, yet profound: God knows and has done what is best.  Can you state that truth with full assurance and faith? Once you do, the great dove of your faith will no longer wander the skies in restless flight, but will settle its feet forever in a resting place of trust; in the good will of your Heavenly Father!

As elementary and ill-advised as it may be, I still believe that a day of understanding will come for each of us, however long that may take. We will understand as we see the tragedies that today darken the world we live in.  We will soon learn how the pains and disadvantages we have endured fit in their proper place in God’s great plan.  When that day comes, though it be an eternity away, we will see the overwhelming, magnificent brilliance of God’s great eternal plan for our life and we will be struck with awe, and we will laugh, in that day, with delight.

Chance has not brought this ill to me;

It’s God’s own hand, so let it be,

For He sees what I cannot see.

There is a purpose for each pain,

And He one day will make it plain

That earthly loss is heavenly gain.

Father, You are the Workman, and I am the frame.

Lord, for the glory of Your Name,

Perfect Your image on the same.

L.B. Cowman – Streams in the Desert

PRAYER

Father, the hardest lesson for me to learn is how to trust You, when I don’t understand Your plan.  I know that You have purposed good for me, but there are times when my heart faints and my faith grows weary.  In those times may You send Your Spirit to anchor me in the storm.  You are the Sure and Steadfast God who has never failed me.  May my heart trust in Your truth, when the trials assail me, and may my soul find its rest in Your truth that You know that which my fearful heart could never begin to understand. This is the strong tower that I lean upon.  In Your Name, I pray. Amen.

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

Today select one thing that has been on your heart and quietly dedicate the outcome of that situation totally to God.  It may not be the heavy thing that you have been dealing with.  Your faith may not be there yet, but start with the small things, and actively release control of the outcome to God.  Then once you feel a peace about that, then move on to the next concern of your heart, and release the outcome of it to God; and then on to the next… Soon you will have developed the spiritual faith to release that heavy thing over to God.  The ‘mountain of trust’ is large and steep, but you just have to start climbing one challenge at a time, and before you realize it, you will be at the top.