Daily Devotion - Apr 29 - ¥q¥?‾u‥C?eAF-×(?e) Morning by Morning

司布真每日靈修(日) Morning by Morning 四月二十九日 經文: 「我在患難之日要求告您，因為您必應允我。」（詩八十六：7） 基督徒一生的道路，並非總是花香常漫，好景常在。難免會有些不如意，或是崎嶇路。誠然，箴言說：「他的道是安樂，他的路全是平安。」（箴三：17）意謂信靠主的人，即使在困苦患難之日，仍有上帝的祝福與內心的平安。經驗更告訴我們：「義人的路，好像黎明的光，越照越明，直到日午。」（箴四：18） 然而，有時候這光會被遮蔽，有如烏雲蔽日，此時信徒在黑暗中就看不到前路。許多信徒一向活在「青草地、溪水旁」，享受上帝的同在與榮光，剎那間，他發現天地變色，美景全消，不禁惶恐納悶，一再問辯：「若我是上帝的孩子，這些倒霉的事就不致發生在我身上。」喔！切莫如此說，即使再好的聖徒，也要接受試煉，即使上帝最親愛的孩子，也要背起他的十字架。沒有一個基督徒可以永遠一帆風順，凡事亨通。或許在你剛信主的時候，還很幼小膽怯，所以上帝沒有把太難的重擔給你，但你在靈裡逐漸長大成熟時，祂就會給你較難的課題，給你磨練，所謂「風雨生信心」，藉著磨練與考驗，信心就越來越茁壯，可以把脆弱的自恃除掉，深深植根在耶穌磐石上，成為單單仰望倚靠上帝的人。朋友，在患難日，更能顯示出信仰的價值，以及倚靠主的榮耀盼望。 Morning, April 29 Scripture: "Thou art my hope in the day of evil."(Jeremiah 17:17) The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God's Word, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;" and it is a great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover the believer's sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the "green pastures" by the side of the "still waters," but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say, "Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness. The best of God's saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of his children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer can always keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God's full-grown children. We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope. www.glorypress.com