0810 聖徒的神聖苦難
…那照神旨意受苦的人要一心為善，將自己靈魂交與那信實的造化主…《彼得前書 4:19》
選擇受苦意味着你一定有問題，但選擇神的旨意——即使這意味着你會受苦——是完全不同的事情。沒有一個正常、健康的聖徒會選擇受苦；他只是選擇神的旨意，就像耶穌一樣樣，無論這是否意味着痛苦。沒有任何聖徒敢介入另一個聖徒生命中正在學習的受苦功課。
滿足耶穌心意的聖徒會使其他聖徒為神變得堅強和成熟。但那些被用來強化我們的人從來都不是那些同情我們的人事實上，我們反而受到那些給我們同情的人的阻礙，因為同情只會使我們脆弱。沒有人比那些與耶穌儘可能親近和親密的聖徒更了解聖徒了。如果我們接受另一位聖徒的同情，我們自然而生的感覺就是：「神對待我太過苛刻，使我的生活太艱難了。」這就是為什麼耶穌說自憐是來自魔鬼的（見馬太福音16:21-23）。我們必須對神的名譽寬大。我們很容易玷污神的品格，因為祂從不反駁；祂從不試圖為自己辯護或證明自己正確。謹防認為耶穌在世生活時需要同情。祂拒絕人們的同情，因為以祂的大智慧，祂知道地上無人明白祂的目的（見馬太福音16:23）。祂只接受天父和天使的同情（見路加福音15:10）。
根據世人的判斷，看看神令人難以置信地浪費祂的聖徒；神似乎把祂的聖徒栽植在最無用的地方。然後我們說：「神想要我留在這裡，因為我對祂如此有用。」然而，耶穌從來沒有以祂如何或在哪裡有最大用處來衡量祂的生命。神將祂的聖徒安置在他們能夠給祂帶來最大榮耀之處，而我們完全無法判斷那可能是在哪裡。
來自章伯斯的智慧
我們開始我們基督徒的生活是通過相信被告知要相信的事情，然後我們必須繼續如此同化我們的信仰，以至於它們以一種迴響神榮耀的方式產生結果。危險是在於我們越來越接受我們自己沒有活出的信念。《改變像祂的樣式》
0810 The Holy Suffering of the Saint
Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good… —1 Peter 4:19
Choosing to suffer means that there must be something wrong with you, but choosing God’s will— even if it means you will suffer— is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God’s will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint’s life.
The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. But the people used to strengthen us are never those who sympathize with us; in fact, we are hindered by those who give us their sympathy, because sympathy only serves to weaken us. No one better understands a saint than the saint who is as close and as intimate with Jesus as possible. If we accept the sympathy of another saint, our spontaneous feeling is, “God is dealing too harshly with me and making my life too difficult.” That is why Jesus said that self-pity was of the devil (see Matthew 16:21-23). We must be merciful to God’s reputation. It is easy for us to tarnish God’s character because He never argues back; He never tries to defend or vindicate Himself. Beware of thinking that Jesus needed sympathy during His life on earth. He refused the sympathy of people because in His great wisdom He knew that no one on earth understood His purpose (see Matthew 16:23). He accepted only the sympathy of His Father and the angels (see Luke 15:10).
Look at God’s incredible waste of His saints, according to the world’s judgment. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, “God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him.” Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We begin our Christian life by believing what we are told to believe, then we have to go on to so assimilate our beliefs that they work out in a way that redounds to the glory of God. The danger is in multiplying the acceptation of beliefs we do not make our own. —Conformed to His Image, 381 L