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「那時他們才信了祂的話，歌唱讚美祂。等不多時，他們就忘了祂的作為，不仰望祂的指教，反倒在曠野大起慾心，在荒地試探神。祂將他們所求的賜給他們，卻使他們的心靈軟弱。」（聖經詩篇一○六篇 12/15 節）
我們曾讀過摩西，「他恆心忍耐，如同看見那不能看見的主」（聖經希伯來書十一章 27 節）。在上面一段記載裡，我們又看見以色列人 ，卻和摩西恰好相反。他們只會在環境順利的時候歌唱讚美神；環境一改變，信心也隨著改變了。他們原應該安息在那看不見的永生的神裡面，可是他們卻被四圍物質的東西統治了。
有一班基督徒，他們的生活一時冷，一時熱；一時高，一時低；這是什麼原因呢？原因就是他們被物質的東西佔住了，他們本該以神為中心的，卻去以環境為中心了。神願意我們在每一件事物上都看見祂，凡帶有祂信息的事物，一件都不能忽略。
剛才我們讀過以色列人，「那時他們纔信了祂的話。」他們一直不信──直到看見了上帝的工作以後纔信，當他們行近紅海的時候，他們對上帝還是懷疑的；但是當上帝為他們開了路，帶領他們過去，讓他們看見法老和他的全軍被水淹沒了──「那時他們纔信。」
他們一直過著一上一下的生活，就是為了這種信心；這是一種倚靠環境的信心，這種信心不是上帝所能滿足的。
世界告訴我們應當「見而信」，但是上帝要我們「信而見」。寫詩篇的人說「我若不信在活人之地得見耶和華的恩惠，就早已喪膽了。」（詩廿七13）
親愛的讀者，你是單在環境順利的時候信神呢，還是不論環境怎樣，你總相信祂呢？── C. H. P.
信心是相信我們所不見的，信心的酬報，就是得見我們所相信的。── 奧古斯丁
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"Then believed they his words; they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel; but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." (Psa. 106:12-15.)
We read of Moses, that "he endured, as seeing him who is invisible." Exactly the opposite was true of the children of Israel in this record. They endured only when the circumstances were favorable; they were largely governed by the things that appealed to their senses, in place of resting in the invisible and eternal God.
In the present day there are those who live intermittent Christian lives because they have become occupied with the outward, and center in circumstances, in place of centering in God. God wants us more and more to see Him in everything, and to call nothing small if it bears us His message.
Here we read of the children of Israel, "Then they believed his words." They did not believe till after they saw--when they saw Him work, then they believed. They really doubted God when they came to the Red Sea; but when God opened the way and led them across and they saw Pharaoh and his host drowned--"then they believed."
They led an up and down life because of this kind of faith; it was a faith that depended upon circumstances. This is not the kind of faith God wants us to have.
The world says "seeing is believing," but God wants us to believe in order to see. The Psalmist said, "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."
Do you believe God only when the circumstances are favorable, or do you believe no matter what the circumstances may be?-- C. H. P.
Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe. --- St. Augustine.
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