11月6日 信心历程

你信这话吗?(约十一26)

马大相信耶稣有能力行事;她相信他若在场,就可以医治她的弟弟。她也相信耶稣与神有特别的关系,他求神什么,神都成就。可是,她需要与耶稣有更亲密的个人关系。马大的信心是在未来才实现的;耶稣领她体验,直至信心成为她个人的财富,然后形成一个特有的产业 – “主啊,是的,我信你是基督……”

主对你是否也一样?主是否教导你,使你进入与他个人亲密的关系里?让神的问题追逼你 – “你信这话吗?”你怀疑的是什么?你所遭遇的,有否像马大的一样,把你带到一处,叫你的信仰快要变成个人的信仰?这个地步,非透过难处而产生个人问题,不能达致。

相信就是完全委身。在心智上委身,就是把一切与这委身无关的事摈弃;在信仰上委身,在道德上就绝不与其他信仰妥协;在特殊信仰上委身,就把灵交给耶稣基督,决志只让主居首位。当我面对主耶稣,他对我说:“你信这话吗?”我会发现信心像呼吸一样自然,而诧异以往为何愚昧地不信靠。

祈祷◆主啊,并非基于任何不配的感觉,或自觉不足,或是任何关乎自己的思想;我来,只因你是你。

November 6 Programme Of Belief

“Believest thou this?” John 11:26

Martha believed in the power at the disposal of Jesus Christ, she believed that if He had been present He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a peculiar intimacy with God and that whatever He asked of God, God would do; but she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha's programme of belief had its fulfilment in the future; Jesus led her on until her belief became a personal possession, and then slowly emerged into a particular inheritance – “Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ. . . ”

Is there something like that in the Lord's dealings with you? Is Jesus educating you into a personal intimacy with Himself? Let Him press home His question to you – “Believest thou this?” What is your ordeal of doubt? Have you come, like Martha, to some overwhelming passage in your circumstances where your programme of belief is about to emerge into a personal belief? This can never be until a personal need arises out of a personal problem.

To believe is to commit. In the programme of mental belief I commit myself, and abandon all that is not related to that commitment. In personal belief I commit myself morally to this way of confidence and refuse to compromise with any other; and in particular belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ, and determine in that thing to be dominated by the Lord alone.

When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me – “Believest thou this?” I find that faith is as natural as breathing, and I am staggered that I was so stupid as not to trust Him before.