Sermons & Devotionals by Charles E. Cowman

Charles E. Cowman

Lettie Burd Cowman (March 3, 1870 – April 17, 1960), also known as L.B. Cowman, was an American writer and author of the devotional books Streams in the Desert and Springs in the Valley. Cowman published her books under the author name Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. She was also one of the cofounders of The Oriental Missionary Society (later known as OMS International, and eventually One Mission Society).

Charles E. Cowman

The Brightest Colors

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted" (Ps. 119:71). It is a remarkable circumstance that the most brilliant colors of plants are to be seen on the highest mountains, in spots that are most exposed to the wildest weather. The brightest lichens and mosses, the loveliest gems of wild flowers, ... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

Sorrow, God's Plowshare

"Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (Eccles. 7:3). When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of experience and serv... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

Trust and Rest

"Trust also in him" (Ps. 37:3). The word trust is the heart word of faith. It is the Old Testament word, the word given to the early and infant stage of faith. The word faith expresses more the act of the will, the word belief the act of the mind or intellect, but trust is the language of the heart.... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

Watch Well Thy Faith

"I have prayed that your own faith may not fail" (Luke 22:32). Christian, take good care of thy faith, for recollect that faith is the only means whereby thou canst obtain blessings. Prayer cannot draw down answers from God's throne except it be the earnest prayer of the man who believes. Faith is t... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

The Old Refiner

"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver" (Mal. 3:3). Our Father, who seeks to perfect His saints in holiness, knows the value of the refiner's fire. It is with the most precious metals that the assayer takes the most pains, and subjects them to the hot fire, because such fires melt the met... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

Reaching Perfection

"Perfect through suffering" (Heb. 2:10). Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does no... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

School of Suffering

"The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11). This was a greater thing to say and do than to calm the seas or raise the dead. Prophets and apostles could work wondrous miracles, but they could not always do and suffer the will of God. To do and suffer God's will is sti... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

The Captive

"As I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God . . . and the hand of the Lord was there upon me" (Ezek. 1:1,3). There is no commentator of the Scriptures half so valuable as a captivity. The old Psalms have quavered for us with a new pathos as w... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

Sorrowful, Yet Rejoicing

"As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (2 Cor. 6:10). The stoic scorns to shed a tear; the Christian is not forbidden to weep. The soul may be dumb with excessive grief, as the shearer's scissors pass over the quivering flesh; or, when the heart is on the point of breaking beneath the meeting surges o... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

The Path to Blessing

"To him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon because he hath wholly followed the Lord" (Deut. 1:36). Every hard duty that lies in your path, that you would rather not do, that it will cost you pain and struggle or sore effort to do, has a blessing in it. Not to do it, at whatever cost, is ... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

Trust in His Promises

"God...calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). What does that mean? Why Abraham did this thing: he dared to believe God. It seemed an impossibility at his age that Abraham should become the father of a child; it looked incredible; and yet God called him a "father of many ... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

We Need Minor Keys Too

"Giving thanks always for all things unto God" (Eph. 5:20). No matter what the source of the evil, if you are in God and surrounded by Him as by an atmosphere, all evil has to pass through Him before it comes to you. Therefore you can thank God for everything that comes, not for the sin of it, but f... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

The Power of Silence

"Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10). Is there any note of music in all the chorus as mighty as the emphatic pause? Is there any word in all the Psalter more eloquent than that one word, Selah (Pause)? Is there anything more thrilling and awful than the hush that comes before the bursting ... Read More

Charles E. Cowman

The Prayer of Faith

"God that cannot lie promised" (Titus 1:2). Faith is not working up by will power a sort of certainty that something is coming to pass, but it is seeing as an actual fact that God has said that this thing shall come to pass, and that it is true, and then rejoicing to know that it is true, and just r... Read More

Sermons & Devotionals by Charles E. Cowman

Group of Brands