|
「主又說....撒旦想要得著你們，好篩你們，像篩麥子一樣。但我已經為你祈求，叫你不至於失了信心。」（聖經路加福音廿二章 31/32 節）
神試驗我們的時候，把我們的信心當作射擊的箭靶；如果別的可以免去試驗的話，信心是一定免不了試驗的。信心最大的試煉乃是被人世遺棄。很多時候神把我們喜樂的甲冑剝去，讓我們遭遇一些恐懼戰兢的經歷，要看我們的信心在試煉中受不受到傷損。真實的信心能絲毫受不到傷損。 ── 司布真
保羅說：「所信的道我已經守住了。」（聖經提摩太後書四章 7 節）人們雖能把他的頭斬去，卻不能把他的信心斬去。這位外邦人的大使徒自以為樂的有三件事 ── 「那美好的仗我已經打過了。當跑的路我已經跑盡了。所信的道我已經守住了。」其餘的一切算什麼呢？他獲得了勝利；他贏得了獎賞；他不但在地上得欽仰，並且在天上得到稱讚。
為什麼我們不能像他那樣將萬事當作有損的，為要得著基督呢？為什麼我們不能像他那樣忠於真理呢？
啊！這是因為我們沒有他的算學。他和我們算得不同；我們算為得著的，他算作有損的。但是如果我們要像他那樣得戴冠冕，就必須有他那樣的信心，並且像他那樣守住信心。── 選
******************************
“And the Lord said…Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that they faith fail not.” (Luke 22:31,32.)
Our faith is the center of the target at which God doth shoot when He tries us; and if any other grace shall escape untried, certainly faith shall not. There is no way of piercing faith to its very marrow like the sticking of the arrow of desertion into it; this finds it out whether it be of the immortals or no. Strip it of its armor of conscious enjoyment, and suffer the terrors of the Lord to set themselves in array against it; and that is faith indeed which can escape unhurt from the midst of the attack. Faith must be tried, and seeming desertion is the furnace, heated seven times, into which it might be thrust. Blest the man who can endure the ordeal! --- C. H. Spurgeon.
Paul said, “I have kept the faith,” but he lost his head! They cut that off, but it didn’t touch his faith. He rejoiced in three things— this great Apostle to the Gentiles; he had “fought a good fight,” he had “finished his course,” he had “kept the faith.” What did all the rest amount to? St. Paul won the of earth today, but the admiration of Heaven.
Why do we not act as if it paid to lose all to win Christ? Why are we not loyal to truth as he was?
Ah, we haven’t his arithmetic. He counted differently from us; we count the things gain that he counted loss. We must have his faith, and keep it if we would wear the same crown.
|