I love the devotional Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. First published in 1925, it reflects a time where followers understood the role of suffering plays in our character development. I tried to find an online link for this excerpt, but my edition has different devotions than the one on Crosswalk.com.
~June 15
Perchance some one of God's chastened children is even now saying, "O God, it is raining hard for me tonight." ...
Withal, friend, you are mistaken. It isn't raining rain for you. It's raining blessing. For, if you will but believe your Father's Word, under that beating rain are springing up spiritual flowers of such fragrance and beauty as never before grew in that stormless, unchastened life of yours.
You indeed see the rain. But do you see also the flowers? You are pained by the testings. But God sees the sweet flower of faith which is upspringing in your life under those very trials.
You shrink from the suffering. But God sees the tender compassion for other sufferers which is finding birth in your soul.
Your heart winces under the sore bereavement. But God sees the deepening and enriching which that sorrow has brought to you.
It isn't raining afflictions for you. It is raining tenderness, love, compassion, patience, and a thousand other flowers and fruits of the blessed Spirit, which are bringing into your life such a spiritual enrichment as all the fullness of worldly prosperity and ease was never able to beget in your innermost soul. J.M.McC.
Some of my friends are beautiful gardens.
