Streams in the Desert April 8 Daily Devotional

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in
persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake: for when I am weak then am I strong (2 Cor. 12.1 0).
The literal translation of this verse gives a startling emphasis to T it and makes it speak for itself with a force that we have
probably never realized. Here it is: "Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, in insults, in being pinched, in being
chased about in being cooped up in a comer for Christ's sake; for when I am without strength, then am I dynamite."
Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of
everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard
situation or bad treatment for we will recognize these things as
the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God
and find in them a claim upon Him. -- A.B. Simpson.
George Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland who recently went to be with the Lord, said: "My God, I have never
thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for
my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have
never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.
"Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn.
Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows."
Alas for him who never sees
The stars shine through the cypress trees.