「你這蟲雅各……不要害怕…我要使你成為有快齒打糧的新器具。」(聖經以賽亞書四十一章 14/15 節英文聖經直譯)
蟲與快齒的器具怎樣可以相比呢?蟲是多麼軟弱,給我們石頭或車輪一壓,就會壓得稀爛;快齒的器具是多麼堅強,甚至能「把山嶺打得粉碎,使岡陵如同糠秕」(15 節)。但是全能的神能使蟲成為有快齒的器具。神能使個人或民族,藉著祂的靈,從蟲的軟弱變到快齒器具的剛強,在歷史上留著很深的痕跡。
所以我們這些渺小的人不要喪膽。全能的神能使我們在四圍患難的環境中變成剛強。靠著祂的力量,我們能叫我們的環境向我們屈服,向我們進貢。我們甚至能隨便抓住一個黑色的失望,把它劈開來,從其中抽出恩典的寶石來。神也能給我們像鐵那般的意志,所有的難處都能迎刃而解,猶如堅土遇到鐵犁那樣鬆散。神既說:「我要使你……」祂豈會不如此行呢? ── 喬懷德
天上充滿著地上破碎的生命,沒有一根壓傷的蘆葦是基督所不能恢復的。祂能使一個被痛苦、憂愁所壓傷的生命,變成一架彈出讚美的音樂來的古琴。祂能把地上的失敗變成天上的榮耀。 ── 密勒(J. R. Miller)
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"Fear not, thou worm Jacob....I will make thee a threshing instrument with teeth." (Isa. 41:14, 15.)
COULD any two things be in greater contrast than a worm and an instrument with teeth? The worm is delicate, bruised by a stone, crushed beneath the passing wheel; an instrument with teeth can break and not be broken; it can grave its mark upon the rock. And the mighty God can convert the one into the other. He can take a man or a nation, who has all the impotence of the worm, and by the invigoration of His own Spirit, He can endow with strength by which a noble mark is left upon the history of the time.
And so the "worm" may take heart. The mighty God can make us stronger than our circumstances. He can bend them all to our good. In God's strengthwe can make them all pay tribute to our souls. We can even take hold of a black disappointment, break it open, and extract some jewel of grace. When God gives us wills like iron, we can drive through difficulties as the iron share cuts through the toughest soil. "I will make thee," and shall He not do it? --- Dr. Jowett.
Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms; but God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. he can lift earth's saddest failure up to heaven's glory. --- J. R. Miller.
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