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「我再說，你們要喜樂。」（聖經腓立比書四章 4 節）
在主裡喜樂，何其佳美！可能你曾試過要凡事喜樂，可是不久即告失敗。不要緊，仍繼續下去，當你不能感覺喜樂，沒有可以喜樂的理由、安慰和鼓勵時，仍該喜樂，算作喜樂。甚至當你落在百般試煉中的時侯，仍要算作喜樂；這樣，神就要證明你的「算」不是徒然的。你想你的父親會不會讓你舉著得勝和喜樂的旗號到前線去，然後他冷冷地向後一退，任憑你被仇敵擄去或擊敗呢？決不！父的聖靈必定會在你勇敢地前進的時侯支持你，將喜樂和讚美充滿你心，那時侯你就會因著裡面的充滿感到非常新鮮和歡樂了。
主啊，教導我們怎樣在你裡面喜樂，「常常喜樂」（聖經帖撒羅尼迦前書五章 16 節）。 ── 選
「要被聖靈充滿……口唱心和的讚美主。」（聖經以弗所書五章 18/19 節）
這裡使徒保羅勸我們用歌唱讚美來增進我們的靈命。一位弟兄對我說：「我若早知道讚美的祕訣，早就不會有很多失敗了。」真的，你一讚美，甚麼過不去的事情都過得去了。
讓我們不息地歌唱讚美，甚至不喜歡唱的時侯也唱：這樣，猶如在笨重的腿上裝了活潑的翅翼，使疲乏的生命得添力量。 ── 喬懷德（J. H. Jowett）
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“And again I say, Rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4.)
IT is a good thing to rejoice in the Lord. Perhaps you have tried this, and the first time seemed to fail. Never mind, keep right on and when you cannot feel any joy, when there is no spring, and no seeming comfort and encouragement, still rejoice, and count it all joy. Even when you fall into divers temptations, reckon it joy and delight, and God will make your reckoning good. Do you suppose your Father will let you carry the banner of His victory and His gladness on to the front of the battle, and then coolly stand back and see you captured or beaten back by the enemy? NEVER! The Holy Spirit will sustain you in your hold advance, and fill your heart with gladness and praise, and you will find your heart all exhilarated and refreshed by the fullness within. Lord teach me to rejoice in Thee, and to “rejoice evermore.” --- Selected.
“The weakest saint may Satan rout, Who meets him with a praiseful shout.”
“Be filled with the Spirit,…singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” (Eph. 5:18, 19.)
Here the Apostle urges the use of singing as one of the inspiring helps in the spiritual life. He counsels his readers not to seek their stimulus through the body, but through the spirit; not by the quickening of the flesh, but by the exaltation of the soul.
“Sometimes a light surprises The Christian while he sings.”
Let us sing even when we do not feel like it, for thus we may give wings to leaden feet and turn weariness into strength. --- J. H. Jowett.
“At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” (Acts 16:25.)
Oh, Paul, thou wondrous example to the flock, who could thus glory, bearing in the body as thou didst “the marks of the Lord Jesus”! Marks from stoning almost to the death, from thrice beating with rods, from those hundred and ninety-five stripes laid on thee by the Jews, and from stripes received in that Philippian jail, which had they not drawn blood would not have called for washing! Surely the grace which enabled thee to sing praises under such suffering is all-sufficient grace. --- J. Roach.
“Oh, let us rejoice in the Lord, evermore, When darts of the tempter are flying, For Satan still dreads, as he oft did of yore, Our singing much more than our signing.”
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