A Hush of Quiet in My Classroom

Here I am, in my poverty of spirit, in the continued classroom of prayer. My great comfort is that my Teacher is the best instructor available. One of the pleasant results of becoming a willing student is that the eyes of my heart are noticing resources that are provoking prayerful contemplation. Books that I have read over the years are speaking to me anew. And with a deep burden and broken heart, I am discerning prayer needs of others. Tears moisten my face.

I share with you the December 4 devotional from Mrs. Charles E. Cowman’s, Streams in the Desert.

“He went up into a mountain apart.” Matthew 14:23

One of the blessings of the old-time Sabbath was its calm, its restfulness, its holy peace. There is a strange strength conceived in solitude. Crows go in flocks and wolves in packs, but the lion and the eagle are solitaires.

Strength is not in bluster and noise. Strength is in quietness. The lake must be calm if the heavens are to be reflected on its surface. Our Lord loved the people, but how often we read of His going away from them for a brief season. He tried every little while to withdraw from the crowd He was always stealing away at evening to the hills. Most of His ministry was carried on in the towns and cities by the seashore, but He loved the hills the best, and oftentimes when night fell He would plunge into their peaceful depths.

The one thing needed above all others today is that we shall go apart with our Lord, and sit at His feet in the sacred privacy of His blessed presence. Oh, for the lost art of meditation! Oh for the culture of the secret place! Oh, for the tonic of waiting on God! – Selected

“Every life that would be strong must have its Holy of Holies into which only God enters.”

How much busier and distracting the world has become since Mrs. Cowman published this book in 1925. Actually, the tearing of flesh and spirit isn’t any different now than it was then. The same battle rages in every generation.