[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0217":3},"FEBRUARY 17\r\nThe land which I do give them, even the children of Israel (Joshua 1:2).\r\nGod 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\r\nspeaks. 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\r\nwaiting for a thing, hoping for it, looking for it, you are not\r\nbelieving. It may be hope, it may be earnest desire, but it is not\r\n\r\nfaith; for \"faith is the substance of things hoped for, the\r\nevidence of things not seen.\" The command in regard to believing\r\nprayer 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\r\nthat moment? Have we met God in His everlasting NOW? --Joshua, by Simpson.\r\nTrue faith counts on God, and believes before it sees. Naturally,\r\nwe want some evidence that our petition is granted before we\r\nbelieve; 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\r\ndone unto us. We shall see because we have believed, and this faith sustains us in the most trying places, when everything around us\r\nseems to contradict God's Word.\r\nThe 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.\r\nIf we have the faith that believes to see, it will keep us from\r\ngrowing discouraged. We shall \"laugh at impossibilities,\" we shall watch with delight to see how God is going to open up a path\r\nthrough the Red Sea when there is no human way out of our difficulty. It is just in such places of severe testing that our\r\nfaith grows and strengthens.\r\nHave 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.",1783499792049]