Quotes from L.B. Cowman

Should you allow yourself to be overcome with despair? Should you turn back in cowardice or in fear or rush ahead in ignorance? No, you should simply wait—but wait in prayer. Call upon God and plead your case before Him, telling Him of your difficulty and reminding Him of His promise to help. Wait in faith. Express your unwavering confidence in Him. And believe that even if He keeps you waiting until midnight, He will come at the right time to fulfill His vision for you.

God knows that you can withstand your trial, or else He would not have given it to you. His trust in you explains the trials of your life, no matter how severe they may be. God knows your strength, and He measures it to the last inch. Remember, no trial has ever been given to anyone that was greater than that person's strength, through God, to endure it.

Those who are unjustly accused, and causelessly ill-treated know what tremendous strength is necessary to keep silence to God.

Talk to God about whatever may be pressuring you and then commit the entire matter into his hands. Do this so that you will be free from the confusion, conflicts and cares that fill the world today.

Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaiah 30:18) We often hear about waiting on God, which actually means that He is waiting until we are ready. There is another side, however. When we wait for God, we are waiting until He is ready.

May we learn that in all the difficult places God takes us, He is giving us opportunities to exercise our faith in Him that will bring about blessed results and greatly glorify His name.

Many people owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties. Charles H. Spurgeon

When nothing on which to lean remains, When strongholds crumble to dust; When nothing is sure but that God still reigns, That is just the time to trust.

I will build you with stones of turquoise. (Isaiah 54:11)

But the greatest triumph of a person's faith is to "be still, and know that [He is] God" (Ps. 46:10).

As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men . . . who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. (2 Chronicles 20:22) Oh, if only we would worry less about our problems and sing and praise more!

I do not believe we have even begun to understand the wonderful power there is in being still. We are in such a hurry, always doing, that we are in danger of not allowing God the opportunity to work. You may be sure that God will never say to us, "Stand still," "Sit still," or "Be still," unless He is going to do something. This is our problem regarding the Christian life: we want to do something to be Christians, instead of allowing Him to work in us.

Never look ahead to the changes and challenges of this life in fear. Instead, as they arise look at them with the full assurance that God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them. Hasn't He kept you safe up to now? So hold His loving hand tightly, and He will lead you safely through all things. And when you cannot stand, He will carry you in His arms.

Strength is found not in busyness and noise but in quietness.

And once she feels totally hopeless and abandoned, God will say, "I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.

When each earthly brace falls under, And life seems a restless sea, Are you then a God-held wonder, Satisfied and calm and free?

Yet the land we are to possess is a land of valleys and hills. It is not all flat or downhill. If life were always smooth and level, the boring sameness would weigh us down. We need the valleys and the hills. The hills collect the rain for hundreds of fruitful valleys. And so it is with us!

Should we think that it pleases His loving heart To cause us a moment's pain? Not so! for He saw through the present cross The joy of eternal gain. So He waited there with a watchful eye, With a love that is strong and sure, And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat, Than was needed to make it pure.

When all our hopes are gone, It is best our hands keep toiling on For others' sake: For strength to bear is found in duty done; And he is best indeed who learns to make The joy of others cure his own heartache.

In the same way, a believer and his Savior can continue many hours in the silent fellowship of love. And although the believer may be busy with the ordinary things of life, he can be mindful that every detail of his life is touched by the character of God's presence, and can have the awareness of His approval and blessing.

No calamity will ever bring only evil to us, if we will immediately take it in fervent prayer to God. Even as we take shelter beneath a tree during a downpour of rain, we may unexpectedly find fruit on its branches. And when we flee to God, taking refuge beneath the shadow of His wing, we will always find more in Him than we have ever before seen or known.

Christians with the most spiritual depth are generally those who have been taken through the most intense and deeply anguishing fires of the soul. If you have been praying to know more of Christ, do not be surprised if He leads you through the desert or through a furnace of pain.

Are you experiencing sorrow? Prayer can make your time of affliction one of strength and sweetness. Are you experiencing happiness? Prayer can add a heavenly fragrance to your time of joy. Are you in grave danger from some outward or inward enemy? Prayer can place an angel by your side whose very touch could shatter a millstone into smaller grains of dust than the flour it grinds, and whose glance could destroy an entire army.

I cannot tell how it is that I should be able to receive into my being a power to do and to bear by communion with God, but I know it is a fact.