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「過了些日子，溪水就乾了。」（聖經列王記上十七章 7 節）
如果我們不知道損失是祝福、失敗是成就、空虛是禮物的話，我們所受的信心教育還不完全。物質的缺乏常是靈力的建設。以利亞坐在基立溪旁注視那日漸乾涸的溪水，正是我們生活的寫真。 「過了些日子，溪水就乾了」 ── 這是我們昨天的歷史，明天的預言。
有一天我們總會知道，信靠恩賜和信靠賜恩者有甚麼不同。恩賜可能一時好用，可是賜恩者是永久的愛。
以利亞在未到撒勒法之前，基立對於他是一個難題。等他到了撒勒法之後，他就清楚明白了。神嚴厲的對付並不是最後的對付。生活中的災禍、沙漠、憂愁，都是一些插入的音樂，並不是最後的精采。
如果以利亞不經過基立，直接由基立往撒勒法去的話，他必定會失去很多幫助他的東西，因為他在基立過的是信心的生活。在你我的生活 中，什麼時候屬地的泉源乾了，屬人的方法完了，我們就該知道，我們的希望和幫助是在乎創造天地的神。── 梅爾（F. B. Meyer）
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"It came to pass… that the brook dried up." (1 Kings 17:7.)
The education of our faith is incomplete if we have not learned that there is a providence of loss, a ministry of failing and of fading things, a gift of emptiness. The material insecurities of life make for its spiritual establishment. The dwindling stream by which Elijah sat and mused is a true picture of the life of each of us. "It came to pass… that the brook dried up" --that is the history of our yesterday, and a prophecy of our morrows.
In some way or other we will have to learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may be good for a while, but the Giver is the Eternal Love.
Cherith was a difficult problem to Elijah until he got to Zarephath, and then it was all as clear as daylight. God's hard words are never His last words. The woe and the waste and the tears of life belong to the interlude and not to the finale.
Had Elijah been led straight to Zarephath he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man. He lived by faith at Cherith. And whensoever in your life and mine some spring of earthly and outward resource has dried up, it has been that we might learn that our hope and help are in God who made Heaven and earth. -- F.B. Meyer.
Perchance thou, too, hast camped by such sweet waters, And quenched with joy thy weary, parched soul's thirst; To find, as time goes on, thy streamlet alters From what it was at first.
Hearts that have cheered, or soother, or best or strengthened; Loves that have lavished so unstintedly; Joys, treasured joys -- have passed, as time hath lengthened, Into obscurity.
If thus, ah soul, the brook thy heart hath cherished Doth fail thee now -- no more thy thirst assuage -- If its once glad refreshing streams have perished, Let HIM thy heart engage.
He will not fail, nor mock, nor disappoint thee; His consolations change not with the years; With oil of joy He surely will anoint thee, And wipe away thy tears. -- J. Danson Smith.
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