2月11日 你对神的盼望弱如垂死?

坚心倚赖你的,你必保守他十分平安。(坚心倚赖:有把心思意念寄放在神身上的意思。)(赛二十六3)

你的想像力是停留在神身上,还是逐渐衰退消失?叫主工人生命枯槁衰竭最主要的原因,就是缺乏想像力。你若从来未运用想像力来到神面前,现在就开始吧。老等神来是无济于事的,你必须把想像力从偶像的脸上转移到神身上,以致得救。想像力是神给我们最大的恩赐,理当全然献给他。你若已经将所有的心思夺回,顺服基督,当试炼临到,你的信心就有了宝贵的资产,因为你可以与神的灵同心同工。要学习把一切合神心意的思想,同自然界所发生的事联系起来——太阳的出没,日月星辰的运转,四时的变换。这样,你的想像力就不会受别的影响,而是受神的支配,为神而用。

“我们和我们的列祖犯罪……忘记了……”——这样就要放一把匕首在你沉睡的地方(意即枕戈待旦,不眠不休的等候神)。“神现时不和我说话”,但其实他是时常和我说话的。要记住你是属于谁,你事奉的是谁。挑起回忆,你爱神的心势必增添十倍。你的想像力也不再呆滞,而是变得活泼、热切;你的盼望也必光辉灿烂不可言状了。

祈祷◆噢,主啊,随着自然界春天的来临,我的灵渴望你那旺盛的生命力能流进我的生命,不住不住地涌流。然而,我是何其丑陋、何其不像基督!不过,这并非情绪低落的感受,而是我在奇异的盼望中看见这情况。

February 11 Is Your Hope In GOD Faint And Dying?

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose imagination is stayed on Thee.” Isaiah 26:3 (R. V. marg.)

Is your imagination stayed on God or is it starved? The starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker's life. If you have never used your imagination to put yourself before God, begin to do it now. It is no use waiting for God to come; you must put your imagination away from the face of idols and look unto Him and be saved. Imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. If you have been bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, it will be one of the greatest assets to faith when the time of trial comes, because your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. Learn to associate ideas worthy of God with all that happens in Nature – the sunrises and the sunsets, the sun and the stars, the changing seasons, and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses, but will always be at the service of God.

“We have sinned with our fathers; . . . and have forgotten” – then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep. “God is not talking to me just now,” but He ought to be. Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve. Provoke yourself by recollection, and your affection for God will increase tenfold; your imagination will not be starved any longer, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.