Daily Devotion - Dec 24 - ¯îºz¥Ì¬u Streams in the Desert

荒漠甘泉 Streams in the Desert

與上帝獨處

經文: 「天將晚，以撒出來在田間默想。」（創廿四63）

我們若有更多單獨的時間，就必有更多屬靈的長進；我們若少嘗試、多退修，就必有更大工作的效果。我們常以為不做事是懶惰、是羞恥，所以我們頂喜歡跑來跑去瞎忙。其實，默想的時候，與上帝談話的時間，擧目望天的時間，是對我們最有益的時間。這種時間從不會「太多」的。

這種時間絕對不是虛耗。漁夫坐下補網，你能不能說他虛耗時間呢？割草者坐下磨刀，你能不能說他虛耗時間呢？我們應該常學以撒的樣子，從熱悶的生活中出來，到田間去默想。我們所過的是熱鬧的生活、喧噪的生活、忙碌的生活，能常與大自然接觸的話，確是一件非常痛快的事情。田間散步，海邊閒遊，能使我們心中充滿新的喜樂和盼望。──選


Quiet Time with God

Scripture: "And Isaac went out to meditate in the fields at eventide" (Gen. 24:63).

We should be better Christians if we were more alone; we should do more if we attempted less, and spent more time in retirement, and quiet waiting upon God. The world is too much with us; we are afflicted with the idea that we are doing nothing unless we are fussily running to and fro; we do not believe in "the calm retreat, the silent shade." As a people, we are of a very practical turn of mind; "we believe," as someone has said, "in having all our irons in the fire, and consider the time not spent between the anvil and the fire as lost, or much the same as lost." Yet no time is more profitably spent than that which is set apart for quiet musing, for talking with God, for looking up to Heaven. We cannot have too many of these open spaces in life, hours in which the soul is left accessible to any sweet thought or influence it may please God to send.

"Reverie," it has been said, "is the Sunday of the mind." Let us often in these days give our mind a "Sunday," in which it will do no manner of work but simply lie still, and look upward, and spread itself out before the Lord like Gideon's fleece, to be soaked and moistened with the dews of Heaven. Let there be intervals when we shall do nothing, think nothing, plan nothing, but just lay ourselves on the green lap of nature and "rest awhile."

Time so spent is not lost time. The fisherman cannot be said to be losing time when he is mending his nets, nor the mower when he takes a few minutes to sharpen his scythe at the top of the ridge. City men cannot do better than follow the example of Isaac, and, as often as they can, get away from the fret and fever of life into fields. Wearied with the heat and din, the noise and bustle, communion with nature is very grateful; it will have a calming, healing influence. A walk through the fields, a saunter by the seashore or across the daisy-sprinkled meadows, will purge your life from sordidness, and make the heart beat with new joy and hope.


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