“–we faint not–While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen–” (2 Cor. 5:16,18)

The ancient Chinese had a unique mechanism for presenting their plays. They would present a play on a two-level stage. On the upper stage, the resolution of the drama was acted out as the story unfolded below. So as tension and mystery were building on the first level, the audience watching the resolution of the plot would yell to the people on the first level, “Hang in there! Don’t give up! If you only knew!” What inspired that hope? It was the knowledge of what was happening on the second level.

Joseph M. Stowell recalls this special event:

“I will never forget the 1980 Olympics hockey match between the U.S. team—composed of small, young, amateur players—and the Soviets. During the final period, I was literally on the edge of my seat. I felt all the agony and anxiety of the contest as I watched it on television—and then suddenly we scored to go ahead late in the game! Can we hang on? I was tense, nervous, and traumatized. Our team went on to win, and at last I was ecstatic.

“Later that night, the network broadcast a replay of the game, so I invited some friends over to watch it. I watched the same game again, but was I on the edge of my seat? Of course not. I sat back, propped up my feet, had a bowl of popcorn, and leisurely sipped a cola. I was watching the very same game—but what I knew about the outcome made a radical difference in my attitude and actions.”

Dear friend, fret not over the conditions of this wicked world—I’ve read the last chapter or the Bible, and we win.Think about it!

There is a story told about Sam Rayburn who was Speaker for the House of Representatives longer than any other man. One of his friends lost a teenage daughter and early the next morning Rayburn knocked on his door. “I just came by to see what I could do to help.” The father replied that there was nothing to do. “Well,” Rayburn said, “have you had your coffee this morning?” The man replied that they had not taken time for breakfast. While Rayburn was working in the kitchen, the man came in and said, “Mr. Speaker, I thought you were supposed to be having breakfast at the White House this morning.” “Well, I was, but I called the President and told him I had a friend who was in trouble and I could not come.”

What a different world this would be if we would learn to become more and more unselfish.

                                         Those who care do!

     “We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26).

      Much that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the answer to our prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who tax us to the utmost; for “tribulation worketh patience.”

      We pray for submission, and God sends sufferings; for “we learn obedience by the things we suffer.”

      We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others, and by laying down our lives for the brethren.

      We pray for strength and humility, and some messenger of Satan torments us until we lie in the dust crying for its removal.

      We pray, “Lord, increase our faith,” and money takes wings; or the children are alarmingly ill; or a servant comes who is careless, extravagant, untidy or slow, or some hitherto unknown trial calls for an increase of faith along a line where we have not needed to exercise much faith before.

      We pray for the Lamb-life, and are given a portion of lowly service, or we are injured and must seek no redress; for “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and…opened not his mouth.”

      We pray for gentleness, and there comes a perfect storm of temptation to harshness and irritability. We pray for quietness, and every nerve is strung to the utmost tension, so that looking to Him we may learn that when He giveth quietness, no one can make trouble.

      We pray for love, and God sends peculiar suffering and puts us with apparently unlovely people, and lets them say things which rasp the nerves and lacerate the heart; for love suffereth long and is kind, love is not impolite, love is not provoked. LOVE BEARETH ALL THINGS, believeth, hopeth and endureth, love never faileth. We pray for likeness to Jesus, and the answer is, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?” “Are ye able?”

      The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the Throne, and to look down from the Glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed. –Selected(from Streams in the Desert)