0320 与神的友谊
我所要做的事岂可瞒着亚伯拉罕呢？《创世记 18:17》
祂友谊之乐。与在祷告中仅仅偶尔感受到神的同在相比，创世记第 18 章显露出与神真正友谊的喜乐。这种友谊意味着与神如此亲密的接触，以至于你甚至不需要请求祂向你显明祂的旨意。那是亲密程度的证据，确认你正接近信仰生活纪律训练的最后阶段。当你与神有了正确的关系时，你就会拥有自由、解脱和喜乐的生命；你就是神的旨意。你所有的常识决定实际上都是祂对你的旨意，除非你灵里检查带来了限制感。在与神完全和愉快的友谊光中，你可以自由地做决定，知道如果你的决定错了，祂会慈爱地产生那种限制感；一旦祂这样做了，你必须立即停止。
祂友谊之难。亚伯拉罕为什么停止祷告？他停下来是因为他与神的关系仍然缺乏亲密的程度，那种亲密程度将使他能够大胆地继续向主祈祷，直到他的愿望得到实现。每当我们在祷告中停止，没有获得真正的愿望时，会说：「嗯，我不知道，也许这不是神的旨意」，那么我们还有另一个层次要走。它表明我们与神的亲密熟悉程度不如耶稣，也不如耶稣希望我们那样——「使他们合而为一，像我们合而为一。」（约翰福音17:22）。想想你祷告的最后一件事——你是倾注于自己的愿望还是神？你的决心是要为自己获得一些属灵的恩赐，还是要得到神？「因为你们没有祈求以先，你们所需用的，你们的父早已知道了。」（马太福音 6:8）。祈求的原因是为了让你可以更好地认识神。「又要以耶和华为乐，祂就将你心里所求的赐给你。」（诗篇 37:4）。我们应该继续祷告，来完全理解神自己。
来自章伯斯的智慧
对神的理智认识可能会在糟糕邪恶的性格中找到。对神的认识和视觉完全取决于一颗纯洁的心。品格决定了神对个人的显现。清心的人得以见神。《圣经伦理学》
0320 Friendship with God
Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing…? —Genesis 18:17
The Delights of His Friendship. Genesis 18 brings out the delight of true friendship with God, as compared with simply feeling His presence occasionally in prayer. This friendship means being so intimately in touch with God that you never even need to ask Him to show you His will. It is evidence of a level of intimacy which confirms that you are nearing the final stage of your discipline in the life of faith. When you have a right-standing relationship with God, you have a life of freedom, liberty, and delight; you are God’s will. And all of your commonsense decisions are actually His will for you, unless you sense a feeling of restraint brought on by a check in your spirit. You are free to make decisions in the light of a perfect and delightful friendship with God, knowing that if your decisions are wrong He will lovingly produce that sense of restraint. Once he does, you must stop immediately.
The Difficulties of His Friendship. Why did Abraham stop praying when he did? He stopped because he still was lacking the level of intimacy in his relationship with God, which would enable him boldly to continue on with the Lord in prayer until his desire was granted. Whenever we stop short of our true desire in prayer and say, “Well, I don’t know, maybe this is not God’s will,” then we still have another level to go. It shows that we are not as intimately acquainted with God as Jesus was, and as Jesus would have us to be— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). Think of the last thing you prayed about— were you devoted to your desire or to God? Was your determination to get some gift of the Spirit for yourself or to get to God? “For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). The reason for asking is so you may get to know God better. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). We should keep praying to get a perfect understanding of God Himself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. –Biblical Ethics, 125 R