1031 信心的考驗
你們若有信心，像一粒芥菜種…你們沒有一件不能作的事了。《馬太福音 17:20》
我們有這種觀點，認為神會因我們的信仰而獎賞我們，在最初階段可能如此，但我們並未通過信心賺取任何什麼——信心把我們帶入與神的正確關係中，並給神機會作工。然而，神經常必須釜底抽薪地打破你作為祂聖徒的經驗，讓你直接與祂自己接觸。神要你明白，那是一種信心的生活，而不是一種情感上享受祂祝福的生活。你信心生活的早期是非常狹隘和激烈，圍繞着少量的經驗，其中的情感和信心一樣多，充滿了陽光和甜蜜。然後神收回了祂可見的祝福，教導你「憑信心行事」（哥林多後書 5:7）。現在你對祂是更有價值，遠超從前你隨着激動見證感到開心的那些日子。
信心的本質必須經過測試和考驗，信心真正的考驗不是我們覺得難以信靠神，而是神的性情必須在我們自己心中被證明是值得信賴的。信心要被轉化為現實，就必須經歷不間斷的孤立時刻。永遠不要將信心的考驗與日常生活紀律操練混為一談，因為很多我們稱之為信心的考驗，是活着無可避免的結果。正如聖經所教導的，信心是對神的信心，它與一切抵觸神的事相抗衡——這種信心說：「無論神做什麼，我都會忠於神的本性。」整本聖經中信心最偉大的至高表現就是——「祂雖殺我，我必信靠祂…」（約伯記13:15）。
來自章伯斯的智慧
我們面臨當神溫柔時我們嚴厲，當神嚴厲時我們溫柔的危險。《神的愛—無敵安慰的信息》
1031 The Trial of Faith
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…nothing will be impossible for you. —Matthew 17:20
We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.
Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L