Streams in the Desert July 11 Daily Devotional

It came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land (I Kings 17:7).
Week after week, with unfaltering and steadfast spirit, Elijah
watched the dwindling brook; often tempted to stagger through
unbelief, but refusing to allow his circumstances to come between

himself and God. Unbelief sees God through circumstances, as we sometimes see the sun shorn of his rays through smoky air, but
faith puts God between itself and circumstances, and looks at them through Him. And. so the dwindling brook became a silver thread; and the silver thread stood presently in pools at the foot of the
largest boulders; and the pools shrank The birds fled; the wild
creatures of field and forest came no more to drink; the brook was dry. Only then to his patient and unwavering spirit, "the work of
the Lord came saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath."
Most of us would have gotten anxious and worn with planning long before that. We should have ceased our songs as soon as the
streamlet caroled less musically over its rocky bed; and with harps swinging on the willows, we should have paced to and fro upon the withering grass, lost in pensive thought. And probably, long ere
the brook was dry, we should have devised some plan, and asking God's blessing on it, would have started off elsewhere.
God often does extricate us, because His mercy endureth forever, but if we had only waited first to see the unfolding of His plans,
we should never have found ourselves landed in such an inextricable labyrinth; and we should never have been compelled to retrace our
steps with so many tears of shame. Wait, patiently wait! --F. B.
Meyer.