0823 祷告——在「暗中」的争战
你祷告的时候，要进你的内屋，关上门，祷告你在暗中的父；你父在暗中察看，必然报答你。 《马太福音 6:6》
耶稣并没有说：「梦想你在暗中的父」，而是说：「祷告你在暗中的父。」祷告是一种意志的努力。当我们进入我们隐密处并关上门之后，要做的最困难的事就是祷告。我们似乎无法让自己的心思进入良好的工作状态，而我们首先要对抗的就是飘荡的思维。私祷中最大的争战就是要克服我们这个闲散和游离的思维问题。我们必须学习训练我们的心思，并专注于刻意、深思熟虑的祷告。
我们必须为祷告找一个特定地方，但一旦我们到那里，这种飘荡的心思就会开始烦扰我们，我们开始对自己说：「需要完成这件事，我今天必须完成那件事。」耶稣说「关上门」。在神面前保持暗中的安静，意味着刻意关上我们的情感之门，并纪念祂。神是在隐密处【暗中】，祂从「暗中」看我们——祂看我们的方式不像其他人，或像我们看我们自己。当我们真正活在「暗中」，我们就不可能怀疑神。我们对祂的确信，胜过对对任何人事物。进入「暗中」，你会发现神一直就在你日常生活的处境中。养成凡事与神处理的习惯。除非你学会完全打开你生命之门，从每个新的一天醒来的那一刻起就让神进来，否则你一整天都会在错误的层面上行事。如果你愿意完全打开你生命之门，并「祷告你在暗中的父」，你生活中每件公开的事情都将标注神同在的永久印记。
来自章伯斯的智慧
眼见不等于相信；我们根据我们所信的来解释我们所看见的。信仰是在你看到神出现之前对神的信任；因此，信仰的本质是它必须经受考验。《他必荣耀我》
0823 Prayer—Battle in “The Secret Place”
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “…pray to your Father who is in the secret place….” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. — He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R