谁能使我们与基督的爱隔绝呢?(罗八35)
神并不叫人与患难绝缘;他说:“在患难中,我要与他同在。”人生不管遭受怎样重大苦难的打击,一概都不能叫人与神的关系隔绝。我们“在这一切事上已经得胜有余了”,保罗在此并不是说些虚幻的事,而是指一些极其真实的事;他说我们在这些事上所以是优胜者,不是靠一己的机智,一己的勇气,也不是靠任何其他事物,乃是根据一件事实;我们与神在基督耶稣里的关系,而这关系不是任何事物可以影响的。不管对也好错也好,我们的景况就是这样,环境际遇就是这样。那些环境一帆风顺的基督徒,我为他们感到可惜。
“难道是患难吗……?”患难绝不是什么赏心乐事;它所包罗的范围极大,举凡困倦、屈辱、劳累等都接踵而至,但都不能叫我们与神的爱隔绝。千万别让忧虑和患难阻碍你认识神爱你这事实。
“是困苦吗……?”当事事不如意,人说神的爱只是谎言,而正义也不存在,神的爱仍然靠得住吗?“是饥饿吗……?”我们饿着肚子的时候,是否仍然相信神的爱,而且得胜有余呢?除非耶稣基督是个骗子,把保罗蒙在鼓里;否则,必定有极不寻常发生在这个人身上,叫他在万事不如意之中,仍然抓紧神的爱。在这一切事情上,逻辑已经失去它的功用。只有一件事可作解释--就是神在耶稣基督里的爱。让我重整旗鼓,再接再厉吧!
祈祷◆主啊,为着我身处的地方,我赞美你;可是在我里面正开始猜想--这是否你为我预备的地方?求你牢牢地拖带我实行你的旨意。我可能只是烦躁不安,求你使我安静和得力,以致我不会因疑惑而得罪你。
May 19 “Out Of The Wreck I Rise”
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Romans 8:35
God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says – “I will be with him in trouble.” It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man's life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are “more than conquerors in all these things.” Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in. I am sorry for the Christian who has not something in his circumstances he wishes was not there.
“Shall tribulation . . . ?” Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may – exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.
“Shall anguish . . . ?” – can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?
“Shall famine . . . ?” – can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?
Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it – the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Out of the wreck I rise” every time.