荒漠甘泉 Streams in the Desert
憂愁是上帝的犛頭
經文: 「憂愁強如喜笑，因為面帶愁容終必使心喜樂。」（傳七3）
在上帝的恩典下，有時也有憂愁臨到，作我們生命上的益處。憂愁不是掛慮，憂愁常會帶領我們進入更深。終日嘻嘻哈哈的人，常是淺薄的人，憂愁是上帝的犛頭，掘到土的深處，地就能多結果子。如果我們從來沒有墮落過，我們就不需要憂愁；我們只需要屬天的喜樂，鼓勵我們進入更深。可是我們曾墮落過，我們就需要憂愁，帶領我們省察、痛悔、認識自己。所以憂愁常使我們多思想，多考慮。
憂愁也使我們不急躁，認準動機和目標。憂愁可以從我們的內心啓發天堂生活，使我們願意施展我們的力量，對上帝和人類作無窮的服務。
我們不妨設想一群懶惰的人，住在山嶺之下，他們從未一探山中的峽谷與岩穴；有一天，大雷雨掃蕩這山嶺，在那些峽谷岩穴之間呼嘯回蕩，聲若擂鼓，揭露了山谷內部的深奧幽秘，像個盤旋曲折的大螺殼。然後，住在山麓的居民，對於這近在咫尺而從未接觸過，並且素不熟悉的迷津，大感驚異。許多得過且過只在人性浮面生活的人，也是如此，直到要受到了大雷雨似的打擊，他們才窺見靈魂的深奧。
凡是被上帝大用的人，都受過憂愁。因為上帝若不將他擘開，就不能使用他。約瑟比雅各其餘的兒子憂愁更多，上帝用他拯救以色列全家和其他民族。因此，聖靈說：「約瑟是多結果子的樹枝，是泉旁多結果的枝子，他的枝條探出牆外。」（創四十九22）大衛和保羅也都經歷過不少憂愁。我們的主為了我們的緣故亦嘗過憂愁，經上稱祂「憂患之子」。上帝常利用憂愁去訓練祂的僕人。──譯自屬天的生命（The heavenly Life）
每一個人和每一國家，都必須在上帝所賜的逆境中接受教訓。我們能夠說：「夜是有福的，因為夜裡有星。」照樣我們也能夠說：「憂愁是有福的，因為憂愁裡面有上帝的安慰。」洪水沖走了窮人的家和磨坊，這是他僅有的財産，當洪水退去之後，而他心碎地站在那遭劫的地點，卻看到被洪水沖刷過的竿上有些亮晶晶的東西。"好像金子"，他說。真是金子，曾使他的財産一掃而光的洪水，卻亦能使他成了富翁，人生亦常如此。──崔倫保（H.C. Trumbull）
Sorrow, God's Plowshare
Scripture: "Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (Eccles. 7:3).
When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of experience and service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect the little meannesses in their nature. Sorrow is God's plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen, or were in a glorified state, then the strong torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force to open up all our souls' capacities; but in a fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly.
Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately, and introspect our motives and dispositions. It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our fellows.
We may suppose a class of indolent people living at the base of a great mountain range, who had never ventured to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains; and some day, when a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, it turns the hidden glens into echoing trumpets, and reveals the inner recesses of the valley, like the convolutions of a monster shell, and then the dwellers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the labyrinths and unexplored recesses of a region so near by, and yet so little known. So it is with many souls who indolently live on the outer edge of their own natures until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within that were never hitherto suspected.
God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had more sorrow than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful bough…by a well, whose branches run over the wall" (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul. --The Heavenly Life
Every person and every nation must take lessons in God's school of adversity. "We can say, 'Blessed is night, for it reveals to us the stars.' In the same way we can say, 'Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort.' The floods washed away home and mill, all the poor man had in the world. But as he stood on the scene of his loss, after the water had subsided, broken-hearted and discouraged, he saw something shining in the bank which the waters had washed bare. 'It looks like gold,' he said. It was gold. The flood which had beggared him made him rich. So it is ofttimes in life." --H. C. Trumbull
取消訂閱 Unsubscribe at http://www.glorypress.com/Devotional/unsubscribe.asp?email=okfloors.zxcv@blogger.com&code=2551&ddb=1
沒有留言:
張貼留言