0501 信心 — 而非情感
因我们行事为人，是凭着信心，不是凭着眼见。《哥林多后书5:7》
有一段时间，我们充分彻底知道神对我们的关心。但当神开始在祂的工作中使用我们时，我们就开始露出可怜的表情，只谈论我们的试炼和困难。而一直以来，神试图让我们像隐藏的人那样，不在聚光灯下做我们的工。如果有可能，我们谁都不想在灵性被隐藏。当似乎神封闭了天堂时，我们还能做我们的工吗？我们中的一些人总想成为明亮的圣徒，带着金色的光环和持续不断的灵感光芒，并一直有其他神的圣徒与我们打交道。一个自信的圣徒对神是毫无价值的；他是异常的，不适合日常生活，完全不像神。我们在这里，不是作为不成熟的天使，而是作为男人和女人，做这个世界的工作；而我们作工，是要以无限强大的力量来顶住挣扎，因为我们是从上而生的。
如果我们不断地试图重现那些特殊的灵感时刻，那就是个征兆，表明我们想要的不是神。我们变得是着迷于神曾经来与我们说话的时刻，并且我们坚持祂再次这么做。但神要我们做的是「行事為人憑著信心」。我们中有多少人把自己置于一旁，仿佛在说：「除非神向我显现，否则我不能作什么」？祂永远不会这么做。我们必须自己站起来，没有任何灵感，也没有神突然的触摸；然后我们感到惊讶，我们发现自己惊呼：「哇，祂一直都在那里，而我却从来没有意识到！」永远不要为那些特殊时刻而活——它们就是惊喜。只有当神看到我们没有被它们误导的危险时，祂才会给我们灵感的触摸。我们决不可将灵感时刻视为生活的标准方式——我们的工作才是我们的标准。
来自章伯斯的智慧
先知们的信息是：尽管他们已经离弃了神，但那并没有改变神。使徒保罗强调同样的真理：「我们纵然失信，祂仍是可信的，因为祂不能背乎自己。」（见提摩太后书 2:13）。 永远不要将神解释为随着我们的变化而改变；祂永远不会；在祂身上没有改变。《以西结书注释》
0501 Faith— Not Emotion
We walk by faith, not by sight. —2 Corinthians 5:7
For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The message of the prophets is that although they have forsaken God, it has not altered God. The Apostle Paul emphasizes the same truth, that God remains God even when we are unfaithful (see 2 Timothy 2:13). Never interpret God as changing with our changes. He never does; there is no variableness in Him. —Notes on Ezekiel, 1477 L