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「在信的人，凡事都能。」（聖經馬可福音九章 23 節）
很多合理的祈求，有時被神故意延擱，原因是為了神要教導我們信心的課程。在信心大學中有很多必修課：信心的試驗、信心的實習、信心的忍耐、信心的毅力、信心的得勝....等等。這些都是要花很多時間去學習的。
人的堅韌性，是從信心訓練中發展出來的。如果你向上帝祈求了，可是答應並不來臨。你怎樣呢？
繼續相信上帝的話，不要因眼見或感覺搖動；在你這樣站牢的時候，你的能力和經驗都會增長的。即使你看到了對上帝的應許似乎發生了矛盾，你仍要絲毫不移動你的信心與立場，那是可以增加你的堅強。
上帝往往故意遲延，這遲延就是對你的禱告的答覆的一種，到你的所求實現的時候，其功效則並無二樣。
聖經中的偉人── 亞伯拉罕、摩西、以利亞等 ── 並非開始就是偉人，都是受過信心的訓練以後，才能勝任神所為他們安排的地位的。
以約瑟為例，聖經詩篇一百零五篇十九節說：「耶和華的話試煉他。」試煉他的，並不是囚犯生活的苦楚，乃是早年神在夢中應允他的話 ── 他將比他的哥哥們更高貴。這句話常在他面前；按照他一生的經歷，這個應允的實現似乎是不可能了 ── 現在他孤孤單單地被囚在牢獄裡，受著冤枉；別人應該下獄的，倒得了釋放。
他在監中不知祈求過多少次：求神使他恢復自由，可是神故意把他的祈求延擱，好使他在絕望中多學習信心的課程。等到他的靈性長進了，「祂所說的應驗了」（聖經詩篇一百零五篇 19 節），神看他有愛心和忍耐對付他的哥哥們了，神就把他放在首相的地位上。
這樣的經歷是非常難受的。當上帝宣佈了祂的心意以後，過了好久，仍不實現，這實在是非常難忍的事情；但是這就是信心的訓練，這訓練能使我們更認識上帝。 （彼前一7）
「叫你們的信心既被試驗，就比那被火試驗，仍然能壞的金子，更顯寶貴。」
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"All things are possible to him that believeth."(Mark 9:23.)
THE "all things" do not always come simply for the asking, for the reason that God is ever seeking to teach us the way of faith, and in our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith, and often many stages are passed before we really realize what is the end of faith, namely, the victory of faith.
Real moral fibre is developed through discipline of faith. Your have made your request of God, but the answer does not come. What are you to do?
Keep on believing God's Word; never be moved away from it by what you see or feel, and thus as you stand steady, enlarged power and experience is being developed. The fact of looking at the apparent contradiction as to God's Word and being unmoved from your position of faith make you stronger on every other line.
Often, God delays purposely, and the delay is just as much an answer to your prayer as is the fulfillment when it comes.
In the lives of all the great Bible characters, God worked thus. Abraham, Moses and Elijah were not great in the beginning, but were made great through the discipline of their faith, and only thus were they fitted for the positions to which God had called them.
For example, in the case of Joseph whom the Lord was training for the throne of Egypt, we read in the Psalms:
"The word of the Lord tried him." It was not the prison life with its hard beds or poor food that tried him, but it was the word God had spoken into his heart in the early years concerning elevation and honor which were greater than his brethren were to receive; it was this which was ever before him, when every step in his career made it seem more and more impossible of fulfillment, until he was there imprisoned, and all in innocency, while others who were perhaps justly incarcerated, were released, and he was left to languish alone.
These were hours that tried his soul, but hours of spiritual growth and development, that, "when his word came" (the word of release),found him fitted for the delicate task of dealing with his wayward brethren, with a love and patience only surpassed by God Himself.
No amount of persecution tries like such experiences as these. When God has spoken of His purpose to do, and yet the days go on and He does not do it, that is truly hard; but it is a discipline of faith that will bring us into a knowledge of God which would otherwise be impossible.
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