We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers,
about the hardships we suffered in the province
of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond
our ability to endure,so that we despaired even
of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence
of death. But this happened that we might not rely on
ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:8,9
The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life
is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning,
and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God
and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and
fits us to help and sympathize with them…
Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace
fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston,drives
the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of
the winds and waves.
-A.B. Simpson (1843-1919)
“Out of the presses of pain,
Cometh the soul’s best wine;
And the eyes that
have shed no rain,
Can shed but little shine.”
Streams in the Desert Volume One – May 18
by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman