Daily Devotion - Feb 24 - ¥q¥¬¯u¨C¤éÆF­×(©]) Evening by Evening

司布真每日靈修(夜) Evening by Evening

二月二十四日

經文: 萬軍之耶和華阿，您惱恨耶穌撒冷……不施憐憫要到幾時呢？耶和華就用美善的安慰話，回答……天使。（撒迦利亞書一：12－13）

上帝對教會之愛深厚得人不能明暸。祂以無限的心腸去愛她，因此，祂的眾兒女應當被激勵。因為上帝向教會說「美善的安慰話」，因此她必興旺。先知撒迦利亞接著把這些安慰話我們：「我為耶路撒冷、為錫安，心�極其火熱。」（亞一：14）上帝是如此愛祂的教會，祂不忍心讓她走入歧途。當她走入歧途時，祂不忍心她遭受太多太重之困難。祂不會讓仇敵加害於她。祂厭惡敵人，因為他們增加她的苦難。有時，上帝似乎離開了祂的教會，但是祂的心向她仍存溫厚。歷史向我們指出，上帝有時以杖管教祂的僕人，但是不久，祂就把杖折斷。看來祂也憎惡那杖，因為它令祂的兒女痛苦，祂比他們更痛。「父親怎樣憐恤他的兒女，耶和華也怎樣憐恤敬畏祂的人。」（詩一○三：13）祂的管教並非表示祂缺乏愛。倘若這話對教會整體是真實的，對每一個別成員也是真實的。你可能害怕上帝會忽略你，這是不正確的。祂數點星宿，一一稱它們的名字，怎可能忘記祂自己的兒女呢？祂完全明白你的處境，如同你是祂的唯一創造或祂曾愛過的唯一聖徒一樣。親近祂，你必得享平安。

Evening, February 24

Scripture: "O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy upon Jerusalem? ... And the Lord answered the angel ... with good words and comfortable words."(Zechariah 1:12,13)

What a sweet answer to an anxious enquiry! This night let us rejoice in it. O Zion, there are good things in store for thee; thy time of travail shall soon be over; thy children shall be brought forth; thy captivity shall end. Bear patiently the rod for a season, and under the darkness still trust in God, for his love burneth towards thee. God loves the church with a love too deep for human imagination: he loves her with all his infinite heart. Therefore let her sons be of good courage; she cannot be far from prosperity to whom God speaketh "good words and comfortable words." What these comfortable words are the prophet goes on to tell us: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy." The Lord loves his church so much that he cannot bear that she should go astray to others; and when she has done so, he cannot endure that she should suffer too much or too heavily. He will not have his enemies afflict her: he is displeased with them because they increase her misery. When God seems most to leave his church, his heart is warm towards her. History shows that whenever God uses a rod to chasten his servants, he always breaks it afterwards, as if he loathed the rod which gave his children pain. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." God hath not forgotten us because he smites—his blows are no evidences of want of love. If this is true of his church collectively, it is of necessity true also of each individual member. You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: he who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made, or the only saint he ever loved. Approach him and be at peace.

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