|
「我……賜給以色列人的地。」（聖經約書亞記一章2節 英文聖經直譯）
這裡神所說的「賜給」是現在式，並不是神將要做的事，乃是神就在此刻要做的。信心求神現在，神就現在賜給。神今天就要工作。
很多時侯我們在神面前等候一件東西、盼望一件東西、尋求一件東西，卻並沒有相信。
這不過是我們的盼望，這不過是我們的需要，並不是我們的信心；因為「信就是所望之事的實底，是未見之事的確據」聖經希伯來書十一章 1 節）。「凡你們禱告祈求的，無論是什麼，只要信是得著的，就必得著。」（聖經馬可福音十一章 24 節）這裡說到信心的禱告，所用的動詞是現在式的。我們有沒有這現在的信心呢？ ── 譯自信宣（Simpson）著《約書亞》（Joshua）
寫詩篇的人說：「我若不信在活人之地得見耶和華的恩惠，就早已喪膽了。」（聖經詩篇二十七篇 13 節）他雖然還沒有看見神對他禱告的答應，但是他已經相信得見；這就能保守他不喪膽。
若是我們也有「信得見」的信心，我們就不會灰心了。我們要笑「不可能」，我們要高興地看神怎樣在紅海，人沒有方法可以脫離艱難的時侯 ── 開路。在這種試驗中，我們的信心最會增長。
*************************
”The land which I do give them, even the children of Israel.” (Joshua 1:2.)
GOD here speaks in the immediate present. It is not something He is going to do, but something He does do, this moment. So faith ever speaks. So God ever gives. So He is meeting you today, in the present moment. This is the test of faith. So long as you are waiting for a thing, hoping for it, looking for it, you are not believing. It may be hope, it may be earnest desire, but it is not faith; for “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The command in regard to believing prayer is the present tense. “When ye pray, believe that ye receive the things that ye desire, and ye shall have them.” Have we come to that moment Have we met God in His everlasting NOW? ---Joshua, by Simpson.
True faith counts on God, and believes before it sees. Naturally, we want some evidence that our petition is granted before we believe; but when we walk by faith we need no other evidence than God’s Word. He has spoken, and according to our faith it shall be done unto us. We shall see because we have believed, and this faith sustains us in the most trying places, when everything around us seems to contradict God’s Word.
The Psalmist says, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living” (Psa. 27:13). He did not see as yet the Lord’s answer to his prayers, but he believed to see; and this kept him from fainting.
If we have the faith that believes to see, it will keep us from growing discouraged. We shall “laugh at impossibilities,” we shall watch with delight to see how God is going to open up a path through the Red Sea when there is no human way out of our difficulty. It is just in such places of severe testing that our faith grows and strengthens.
Have you been waiting upon God, dear troubled one, during long nights and weary days, and have feared that you were forgotten? Nay, lift up your head, and begin to praise Him even now for the deliverance which is on its way to you. ---Life of Praise.
|