Streams in the Desert February 17 Daily Devotional

The land which I do give them, even the children of Israel (Joshua 1:2).
God here speaks in the immediate present. It is not something He Is going to do, but something He does do, this moment So faith ever
speaks. So God ever gives. So He is meeting you today, in the present moment. This is the test of faith. So long as you are
waiting for a thing, hoping for it, looking for it, you are not
believing. It may be hope, it may be earnest desire, but it is not

faith; for "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
evidence of things not seen." The command in regard to believing
prayer is the present tense. "When ye pray, believe that ye receive the things that ye desire, and ye shall have them." Have we come to
that moment? Have we met God in His everlasting NOW? --Joshua, by Simpson.
True faith counts on God, and believes before it sees. Naturally,
we want some evidence that our petition is granted before we
believe; but when we walk by faith we need no other evidence than God's Word. He has spoken, and according to our faith it shall be
done unto us. We shall see because we have believed, and this faith sustains us in the most trying places, when everything around us
seems to contradict God's Word.
The Psalmist says, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living" (Ps. 27:13). He did not see as yet the Lord's answer to his prayers, but he believed to see and this kept him from fainting.
If we have the faith that believes to see, it will keep us from
growing discouraged. We shall "laugh at impossibilities," we shall watch with delight to see how God is going to open up a path
through the Red Sea when there is no human way out of our difficulty. It is just in such places of severe testing that our
faith grows and strengthens.
Have you been waiting upon God, dear troubled one, during long nights and weary days, and have feared that you were forgotten? Nay, lift up your head, and begin to praise Him even now for the deliverance which is on its way to you. --Life of Praise.