3月22日 焚烧的心

我们的心岂不是火热的吗?(路加福音24:32)

我们要学习这火热的心的秘诀。耶稣忽然向我们显现,热火就焚烧起来,我们得了奇妙的异象;然后就要学习怎样持守这火热的心,以致能经历各样的际遇。平淡无奇、日复一日的生活、加上日常的工作与来往的人事,会叫心中的火熄灭——除非我们学会常住在主耶稣里面。

我们作基督徒的痛苦,多半不是因罪而来,乃是因我们不认识自己本性的律,例如,要查验某一种感情是否应该发展,唯一的方法就是看看那感情的后果如何。把它推到逻辑上的结论去,若后果是神会定罪的,就不要让它继续下去;但若那感情是神的灵的,而你却不容它在你生命中占该有的位置,它就会在低一层的水平上发挥作用。情感主义者就是这样造成的。我们若不让感情有正确的宣泄,那么情绪愈高,那堕落的光景就愈惨了。神的灵若激动你,就要尽量付诸实行,不要管后果怎样。我们不能长留在变像的山顶,而必须顺服在山上所接受的亮光。神赐你异象,就要照着异象所指示的,切实去做,不管代价有多大。

心灵所存的火,不是人意可燃点,
灵在吹动又静止,人心活在隐秘里。
但密室启示的顺服,却藉暗地的劳苦完成大工。

祈祷◆这个日子,噢,主啊,是你的日子;求你使它像宝石一般,永远在我们的生命中发光。

March 22 The Burning Heart

“Did not our heart burn within us?” Luke 24:32

We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions, then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart that will go through anything. It is the dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with commonplace duties and people, that kills the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.

Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we ought to allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it be an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level. That is the way sentimentalists are made. The higher the emotion is, the deeper the degradation will be, if it is not worked out on its proper level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay on the mount of transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there; we must act it out. When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.

“We cannot kindle when we will
The fire which in the heart resides,
The spirit bloweth and is still,
In mystery our soul abides;
But tasks in hours of insight will’d
Can be through hours of gloom fulfill’d.”