The Discipline of Faith - A Spiritual Life Post

The following was written by Lettie Cowman, who served with her husband, Charles, as a missionary from 1901-1917 in Japan & China:

"All things are possible to him who believes."  -Mark 9:23

The "everything" in this verse does not always come simply for the asking.  God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith, and in our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith, and 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 feel, and thus as you stand steady, enlarged power and experience is being developed.  The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God's Word & being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every other line.  

Often God delays purposely, and 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, and only then 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, 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 and honor which were greater than his brethren were to receive.  It was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfillment.  These were hours that tried his soul, but also hours of spiritual growth and development.  

No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these.  When God has spoken to his purpose to do, and yet the days go on and 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.  

-Taken from Minute Meditations for Women by Emilie Barnes