Daily Devotion - Mar 10 - ¯îºz¥Ì¬u Streams in the Desert

荒漠甘泉 Streams in the Desert

義人因信而活

經文: 「義人因信而活。」（來十38，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人生活中的一部分，並不是全部分。前途中埋伏著試煉、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。許多人因為感覺而跌倒，他們依靠感覺，不依靠信心。

有一個姊妹告訴我們：她有一次覺得上帝離開了她。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，有一天上帝對她說：「凱撒林，你一直在外面的感覺上尋找我，所以找不着。這六星期中，我却在裡面等待妳，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：當魂感覺孤單、淒涼的時候，我們的信心仍能說：「我看不見您，我感覺不到您，但是您始終在這裡，所以我一直是這樣的我。哦，主，您一直在這裡，荊棘雖然沒有燒燬，但是的確被火燒着，我要把我腳上的鞋脫下來，因為我所站的是聖地。」──基督報（London Christian）

我們應該信上帝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（Ruther Ford）

我們的眼睛應該凝視基督所已經完成的工作。我們應當仰望耶穌，張起我們的帆來，勇勇敢敢地與浪相搏。不要留戀在不信的港口裡，不要躺臥在黑暗的死寂裡，不要任你的感覺上下顛簸，像碇泊的船隻一般。屬靈的生活不是蹲伏在情感上的，也不是留戀在淺水裡的。撐開去！撐到狂風大浪中去。信靠主！祂是管理的主。飛鳥越飛得高，越是安全。如果牠飛得低──靠近地面──牠也許會陷入捕鳥者的網羅裡去。照樣，如果我們一直匍匐在低地上──倚靠感覺、情感──我們就要看見我們自己將要被千萬種網羅──懷疑、失望、誘惑、不信…──所纏累。這就是「好像飛鳥網羅，設在眼前仍不躲避」（箴一17）。──馬克特夫（Dr. Macduff）


The Just Shall Live by Faith

Scripture: "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One of the saints tells us that it seemed as though God had withdrawn Himself from her.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 burn 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
Keep your eye steadily fixed on the infinite grandeur of Christ's finished work and righteousness. Look to Jesus and believe, look to Jesus and live! Nay, more; as you look to him, hoist your sails and buffet manfully the sea of life. Do not remain in the haven of distrust, or sleeping on your shadows in inactive repose, or suffering your frames and feelings to pitch and toss on one another like vessels idly moored in a harbor. The religious life is not a brooding over emotions, grazing the keel of faith in the shallows, or dragging the anchor of hope through the oozy tide mud as if afraid of encountering the healthy breeze. Away! With your canvas spread to the gale, trusting in Him, who rules the raging of the waters. The safety of the tinted bird is to be on the wing. If its haunt be near the ground--if it fly low--it exposes itself to the fowler's net or snare. If we remain grovelling on the low ground of feeling and emotion, we shall find ourselves entangled in a thousand meshes of doubt and despondency, temptation and unbelief. "But surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of THAT WHICH HATH A WING" (marginal reading Prov. 1:17). Hope thou in God. --J. R. Macduff


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