「義人必因信而活。」(聖經希伯來書十章 38 節英文聖經直譯)
眼見和感覺常會代替信心。高興的情感和滿足的經歷僅是基督徒生活中的一部分,並不是全部。前途中埋伏著的試煉、逼迫、戰爭,絕非不幸,乃是我們必受的訓練。
在這一切患難的經歷中,我們須認定主活在我們裡面,不管我們的感覺怎樣。很多人因為感覺而跌倒;他們依靠感覺,不依靠信心。
有一個姐妹告訴我們:她有一次覺得神離開了她。祂的恩典、憐憫,似乎完全跑開了。她在這種情形之下有六星期之久,有一天神對她說:
「凱瑟琳,妳一直在外面的感覺上尋找我,所以找不著;這六星期中我卻在裡面等待妳;妳應當到妳靈中內室裡來找我,因為我在那裡。」
我們應該分辨情感和事實,這是何等快樂的一回事:當靈魂感覺孤單淒涼的時侯,我們的信心仍能說:「我看不見你,我感覺不到你,但是你始終在這裡,所以我一直是這樣的我。主,你一直在這裡;荊棘雖然沒有燒燬,但是的確被火燒著。我要把鞋脫下來,因為我所站的是聖地。」
我們應該信神的話語和能力,過於信我們自己的感覺和經歷。我們的磐石是基督,漲落的不是磐石,乃是我們魂中的海潮。 ── 羅斯福特
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"The just shall live by faith." (Heb. 10:38.)
SEEMINGS and feelings are often substituted for faith. Pleasurable emotions and deep satisfying experiences are part of the Christian life, but they are not all of it. Trials, conflicts, battles and testings lie along the way, and are not to be counted as misfortunes, but rather as part of our necessary discipline.
In all these varying experiences we are to reckon on Christ as dwelling in the heart, regardless of our feelings if we are walking obediently before Him. Here is where many get into trouble; they try to walk by feeling rather than faith.
One of the saints tells us that it seemed as tough God had withdrawn Himself from her. His mercy seemed clean gone. For six weeks her desolation lasted, and then the Heavenly Lover seemed to say:
"Catherine, thou hast looked for Me without in the world of sense, but all the while I have been within waiting for thee; meet Me in the inner chamber of thy spirit, for I am there."
Distinguish between the fact of God's presence, and the emotion of the fact. It is a happy thing when the soul seems desolate and deserted, if our faith can say,"I see thee not. I feel thee not, but Thou art certainly and graciously here, where I am as I am." Say it again and again: "Thou art here: though the bush does not seem to brun with fire., it does burn. I will take the shoes from off my feet, for the place on which I stand is holy ground." --- London Christian.
Believe God's word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea. --- Samuel Rutherford.
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