1110 福音中的团契
打发我们的兄弟在基督福音上作神执事的提摩太前去，坚固你们，并在你们所信的道上劝慰你们…《帖撒罗尼迦前书3:2》
你成圣之后，就很难再说出你的人生目标是什么，因为神已借着圣灵将你带入祂的美意中。祂为了祂在全世界的计划，祂现在正使用你，正如祂为了我们的救恩计划，使用祂的儿子一样。如果你为自己图谋大事，想着「神已经呼召我做这做那」，你就阻碍了神使用你。只要你保持自己个人的兴趣和野心，你就不可能完全与神的利益对准或认同；要做到这点，只能透过一次且永远地放弃你所有的个人计划，并容让神把你直接带进祂对世界的计划里。你也必须放弃对自己道路的理解，因为它们现在是主的道路。
我必须学习，我生命的目的是属于神的，而不是我自己的。神从祂伟大的个人视角来使用我，祂所要求于我的，只是我信任祂。我永远不应该说：「神，这让我如此心痛。」那样说，只会使我成为绊脚石。当我停止告诉神说我想要什么之时，祂就能自由地在我身上施展祂的目的，没有任何阻碍。祂可以压垮我，高升我，或者做祂选择的任何事。祂只是要求我对祂和祂的良善有绝对的信心。自怜是出于魔鬼的，如果我沉湎于其中，我就不能被神使用在祂对世界的计划里。这样做会为我制造出我自己舒适的「世界里的世界」，因为我害怕「冻伤」，我就不让神把我从其中带出来。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们容易认为发生在我们身上的一切，都要转化为有益的教训；它是要成为比教训更好的东西，即转化为品格。我们会发现，神带我们进入的领域并不是要教导我们什么，而是要陶塑我们。《神的爱——不被注意的事工》
1110 Fellowship in the Gospel
…fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ… —1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache.” To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy “world within the world,” and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being “frost-bitten.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching; it is to be turned into something better than teaching, viz. into character. We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something. The Love of God—The Ministry of the Unnoticed, 664 L