0430 自發的愛
愛是恆久忍耐，又有恩慈……《哥林多前書 13:4》
愛不是事先籌劃好的，它是自發的；也就是說，它以非凡的方式爆發出來。保羅對愛的描述並沒有任何精確的確定性。我們不能通過說「現在我絕對也不會有任何邪惡的念頭，我會相信耶穌要我相信的一切」來預先確定我們的思想與行動。不，愛的特質是自發性。我們不是刻意將耶穌的話放在眼前作為我們的標準，但當祂的靈對我為所欲為時，我們就會根據祂的標準生活，甚至我們都沒有意識到。當我們回頭看時，我們會驚訝地發現我們對自己的情感多麼漠不關心，這正是真正自發的愛存在的明證。我們裡面神的生命所涉及的一切事物的本質，只有當我們經歷過且已成為我們的過去時，它才能被辨識出來。
愛的源泉在神裡面，而不在我們裡面。認為神的愛是自然而然地在我們心中，是我們本性的結果，這種想法是荒謬的。祂的愛之所以在那裡，只是因為「所賜給我們的聖靈，將神的愛澆灌在我們心裡。」（羅馬書5:5）
如果我們試圖向神證明我們有多麼愛祂，那是我們真不愛祂的確切標誌。我們愛祂的證據是我們愛的絕對自發性，從在我們裡面祂的本性自然流露出來的。當我們回顧過去時，我們將無法確定為什麼我們做了某些事情，但我們可以知道，我們是根據在我們裡面祂愛的自發本質來做的。神的生命以這種自發的方式展現出來，因為祂愛的泉源是在聖靈里。
來自章伯斯的智慧
我們可能對神的觀念像把熔化的鉛倒入專門設計的模具中，那是極具危險性的，當它冷卻凝固後，我們就把它扔到不同意我們觀點的宗教人士的頭上。《真的門徒》
0430 Spontaneous Love
Love suffers long and is kind… —1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is not premeditated– it is spontaneous; that is, it bursts forth in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of precise certainty in Paul’s description of love. We cannot predetermine our thoughts and actions by saying, “Now I will never think any evil thoughts, and I will believe everything that Jesus would have me to believe.” No, the characteristic of love is spontaneity. We don’t deliberately set the statements of Jesus before us as our standard, but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard without even realizing it. And when we look back, we are amazed at how unconcerned we have been over our emotions, which is the very evidence that real spontaneous love was there. The nature of everything involved in the life of God in us is only discerned when we have been through it and it is in our past.
The fountains from which love flows are in God, not in us. It is absurd to think that the love of God is naturally in our hearts, as a result of our own nature. His love is there only because it “has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5).
If we try to prove to God how much we love Him, it is a sure sign that we really don’t love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is the absolute spontaneity of our love, which flows naturally from His nature within us. And when we look back, we will not be able to determine why we did certain things, but we can know that we did them according to the spontaneous nature of His love in us. The life of God exhibits itself in this spontaneous way because the fountains of His love are in the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is perilously possible to make our conceptions of God like molten lead poured into a specially designed mould, and when it is cold and hard we fling it at the heads of the religious people who don’t agree with us. Disciples Indeed, 388 R