8月31日 我的喜乐……你们的喜乐

要叫我的喜乐,存在你们心里,并叫你们的喜乐可以满足。(约十五11)

耶稣的喜乐是什么?若在耶稣身上应用“快乐”这词,实在是一种侮辱。耶稣的喜乐是对父绝对的顺服与舍己。因作成他父差他来作的工而喜乐。“我乐意照你的旨意行。”耶稣的祷告是要我们的喜乐日趋完备,直到像他的喜乐一样。我有没有让主把喜乐带给我?

生命的满溢不是在身体的健康,不是在外在的事物,不是在看见神的事工成就,乃在对神完全的明白,有耶稣与父神那种契合。拦阻这喜乐的第一件事,是挑剔猜度而来的恼怒。耶稣说今生的忧虑会阻塞神的话。我们还未知身处何方,已经被纷繁的事物抓住了。神为我们所作成的一切只带我们来到门槛,他还要我们进入,作他的见证,活出耶稣是谁。更与神连合,从而得喜乐,就有活水从你涌流。要做活水的中心,让主透过你倒出活水。不要在沉浸在自觉里,不要做成圣的自负者,要藏在基督里活。与神连合的生命,自然得像呼吸一般。那些最叫你蒙福的人,是那些不觉自己成为别人祝福的人。

祈祷◆噢,神啊,让我更多的认识你,并更切实地认识你的儿子、我的救主和主。愿你赐我愈来愈认识你的主权和统治,并且愈享受在你里面的单纯喜乐。

August 31 My Joy . . . Your Joy

“That My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” John 15:11

What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do. “I delight to do Thy will.” Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had. The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God's word. Before we know where we are, we are caught up in the shows of things. All that God has done for us is the mere threshold; He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim Who Jesus is.

Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a centre for Jesus Christ to pour living water through. Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.