1025 顺服神的旨意
…向什么样的人，我就做什么样的人，无论如何，总要救些人。《哥林多前书 9:22》
基督工人必须学习如何在众多微不足道、毫无价值的事物中，成为属神的伟大价值和卓越的男男女女。永远不要抗议说：「但愿我在别的地方！」神所有的子民都是普通人，因神所赋予他们的目的而变得非凡。除非我们理智上有正确目标，且心中有爱，否则我们很快就会偏离，对神失去用处。我们不是选择作神的工人；许多人刻意选择成为工人，但他们并没有神全能恩典或神大能话语的心意在他们身上。保罗全心、全意和灵魂都被耶稣基督降世所要完成的伟大目的所占据，他从未偏离这一点。我们必须不断直面自己这个核心事实——「…耶稣基督并他钉十字架」（哥林多前书 2:2）。
「是我拣选了你们…」（约翰福音 15:16），把这些话作为你神学中的一个很棒的提醒；不是你得到了神，而是神得到了你。神正在作工，弯曲、破碎、塑造，照祂所选择的去做。祂为什么要这么做？祂这样做只为了一个目的，就是祂可以说：「这是属于我的男男女女。」我们必须在神的手中，以便于祂能将其他人安置在耶稣基督此一磐石上，就像祂安置了我们一样。
永远不要选择成为一名工人，但是一旦神呼召你，如果你「…偏左右…」（申命记28:14），你就有祸了。祂会做在你身上的，是祂呼召你之前绝未做的，而祂会做在你身上的，是祂不做在他人身上的，让祂按照祂的方式做吧。
来自章伯斯的智慧
基督徒生活中的许多痛苦并不是因为魔鬼与我们交锋，而是因为我们从未理解我们本性的简单法则。我们必须把身体视为基督耶稣的仆人：当身体说「坐下」，而祂说「去」，那就去！当身体说「吃」，而祂说「禁食」，那就禁食！当身体说「打哈欠」，而祂说「祷告」，那就祷告！《圣经伦理学》
1025 Submitting to God’s Purpose
I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. —1 Corinthians 9:22
A Christian worker has to learn how to be God’s man or woman of great worth and excellence in the midst of a multitude of meager and worthless things. Never protest by saying, “If only I were somewhere else!” All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them. Unless we have the right purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose of God’s almighty grace or His mighty Word in them. Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. We must continually confront ourselves with one central fact— “…Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
“I chose you…” (John 15:16). Keep these words as a wonderful reminder in your theology. It is not that you have gotten God, but that He has gotten you. God is at work bending, breaking, molding, and doing exactly as He chooses. And why is He doing it? He is doing it for only one purpose— that He may be able to say, “This is My man, and this is My woman.” We have to be in God’s hand so that He can place others on the Rock, Jesus Christ, just as He has placed us.
Never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, woe be to you if you “turn aside…to the right or the left…” (Deuteronomy 28:14). He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray,” pray! Biblical Ethics, 107 R