11月10日 福音里的相交

……在基督福音上和神同工……(帖三2,新译本)

人成圣以后,很难再明说自己的人生目标是什么,因为神已藉圣灵把你放在他的计划里。如今在他对全世界的计划中,他使用你,正如他在我们的救赎计划中,使用他的名字一样。你若为自己求大事 – 神呼召我做这个那个,就是限制了神对你的使用。只要你对自己的品性仍感关注,或仍抱个人的野心,就无法与神的心意认同。要与神合一,必须把自己的意念决绝地抛弃,让神带你到他对全世界的计划中。这样,你的行动既全在主里,就必无法明白所行的路。

人生的目标是属神的,不是属自己的,这一点我们必须学习。神按着他美好的旨意用我,要求我信赖他,不要说:“主啊,这事叫我心痛。”我这样说就成了一个阻碍。若不再对神说我要什么,他才能毫无阻隔地把所要的给我。他可以把我压碎,也可以叫我高升,他可以随己意而行。神只要求我对他完全信任,信任他和他的良善。自怜自悯出于魔鬼,我若走这条路,神就不能用我于全世界的计划里。我若活在一个“世界里的世界”,深怕走到外面会冻僵,神就永无法带我出来。

祈祷◆主啊,愿你发声,让我可以听见和明白。我的属灵生命似乎太表面化,能察觉到带有恩慈的能力是那么少;求你激励我,直至我与你一同发光。

November 10 Fellowship In The Gospel

“Fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Ghost; He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself – God has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing for ever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.

I have to learn that the aim in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say – Lord, this gives me such heart-ache. To talk in that way makes me a clog. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himself and in His goodness. Self pity is of the devil, if I go off on that line I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. I have "a world within the world" in which I live, and God will never be able to get me outside it because I am afraid of being frost-bitten.