0101 让我们抓住重点
照着我所切慕、所盼望的，没有一事叫我羞愧，只要凡事放胆，无论是生是死，总叫基督在我身上照常显大。《腓立比书 1:20》
竭诚为主。「……我所切慕、所盼望的，没有一事叫我羞愧。」 如果我们不将耶稣要求我们降服祂的生活领域降服于祂，我们会感到非常羞愧。就好像保罗说的：「我决心要竭诚为主——要为了祂的荣耀而尽最大的努力。」 要达到这种决心的程度，是意志的问题，而不是辩论或推理的问题；在那一点上，是意志力绝对和不可挽回的降服。任何对自己过度、不适当的想法和考虑，尽管我们装作为了顾虑到别人，以此假装来掩饰，都是会阻止我们做出那个降服决定的原因。当我们认真思考如果我们顺从耶稣的呼召，会使别人付出代价时，我们等于是在告诉神，祂不知道我们的顺服意味着什么。要抓住重点——祂是知道的。排除其他一切的想法，只在这一件事上保守自己在神面前——竭诚为主。我决心绝对地、完全地为祂，并且也只单单为祂。
为祂的圣洁义无反顾。「无论是生是死，我总不动摇！」（腓立比书1:21）。保罗下定决心没有什么能够拦阻他照神的旨意行事。但在我们选择遵行神的旨意之前，我们的生活必生发危机，这是因为对神比较温和引起我们注意的轻推，我们容易反应迟钝。祂将我们带到一个地方，要求我们竭诚为主，我们却开始争辩起来。然后祂护佑地在我们生活中制造一个我们必须做出决定的危机——是顺服还是抵挡祂。那一刻就变成我们生命中重大的十字路口。如果危机在任何方面临到你，你要绝对地、不可改变地将你的意志降服于耶稣。
来自章伯斯的智慧
对那些没有经历过痛苦的人，耶稣说：「我没有什么可以给你的；站稳自己的脚，挺起自己的肩膀（挺身而立）。我是为那些知道自己所面对的，远超出他能应付的，那些知道他无法触碰某些势力的人；若他让我来，我会为他做一切的事。只要让一个人承认他有需要，我就会为他做。」《痛苦的阴影》
0101 Let Us Keep to the Point
My earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.—Philippians 1:20
My Utmost for His Highest. “…my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed….” We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him. It’s as if Paul were saying, “My determined purpose is to be my utmost for His highest— my best for His glory.” To reach that level of determination is a matter of the will, not of debate or of reasoning. It is absolute and irrevocable surrender of the will at that point. An undue amount of thought and consideration for ourselves is what keeps us from making that decision, although we cover it up with the pretense that it is others we are considering. When we think seriously about what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He doesn’t know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point— He does know. Shut out every other thought and keep yourself before God in this one thing only— my utmost for His highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and Him alone.
My Unstoppable Determination for His Holiness. “Whether it means life or death-it makes no difference!” (see Philippians 1:21). Paul was determined that nothing would stop him from doing exactly what God wanted. But before we choose to follow God’s will, a crisis must develop in our lives. This happens because we tend to be unresponsive to God’s gentler nudges. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate. He then providentially produces a crisis where we have to decide— for or against. That moment becomes a great crossroads in our lives. If a crisis has come to you on any front, surrender your will to Jesus absolutely and irrevocably.