Streams in the Desert May 12 Daily Devotional

All things are possible to him that believeth (Mark 9.:23).
The "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith, and in our training in the faith fife there must be room for the trial
of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the
courage of faith, & often many stages are passed before we really realize what is the end of faith, namely, the victory of faith.
Real moral fiber is developed through discipline of faith. You have
made your request of God, but the answer does not come. What are

you to do?
Keep on believing God's Word; never be moved away from it by what
you see or fell, & thus as you stand steady, enlarged power &
experience is being developed. The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction to God's Word & being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every other line.
Often God delays purposely, & the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes.
In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus.
Abraham, Moses & Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great through the discipline of their faith, & only thus were
they fitted for the positions to which God had called them.
for example, in the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms: "The Word of the Lord tried him." It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor
food that tried him, but it was the Word God had spoken into his
heart in the early years concerning elevation & honor which were
greater than his brethren were to receive; it was this which was
ever before h I'm, when every step in his career made it seem more & more impossible of fulfillment, until he was there imprisoned, &
all in innocency, while others who were perhaps justly
incarcerated, were released, & he was left to languish alone.
These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth & development, that "when his word came" (the word of release), found him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love & patience only surpassed by God Himself.
No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these. When God has spoken of His purpose to do, & yet the days go on & He does not do it, that is truly hard; but it is a discipline of faith that
will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.