2月26日 對耶穌的低估
先生沒有打水的器具。(約四11)
“神所說的一切奇妙我很欽仰,但他休想我能在生活裏真正行出來!”論到主耶穌本身的美德,往往叫我們有一種敬虔的優越感。“你的理想甚高,令我們心悅誠服,但一涉及實際事物,就行不通了。”我們各人對耶穌或多或少總有這樣的想法。當我們向人講說與神立約,人家會好奇地問:“你的錢從哪裏來?你怎麽應付生活?”因而使我們對耶穌發生質疑。有時這種疑慮會發自我們本身,對主說這件事他也許難以應付。“說信靠主是不錯的,但人總要生活的啊,耶穌連打水的器具也沒有,他怎樣供應我們?”你要留心裏面那敬虔的虛僞說:“我不怪主耶穌,只怪自己。”人從來不會怪責自己;我們無能爲力的地方,自己知得很清楚,但不滿意主的卻很多。對他能做而我們所不能的,我們會覺得有損自尊。
當我省察自己,才發現神對任何事物都能應付自如,這樣,不滿就油然而生,因爲我的自卑感在作祟。若真的是這樣,要來到神面前承認:“主,我對你有誤會,我未能放下自己,去信任你的智慧;我沒有離開自我的悟性,去相信你的全能。”
祈禱◆噢,主啊,我懷著何等的釋然投向你。我對你的需要真是數之不盡,而在那奇异的釋放和喜樂中,我發現我所需要的,就只有你。
February 26 Inferior Misgivings About
Jesus
“Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with.” John 4:11
“I am impressed with the wonder of what God says, but He cannot expect me
really to live it out in the details of my life!” When it comes to facing Jesus
Christ on His own merits, our attitude is one of pious superiority – Your
ideals are high and they impress us, but in touch with actual things, it cannot
be done. Each of us thinks about Jesus in this way in some particular. These
misgivings about Jesus start from the amused questions put to us when we talk
of our transactions with God – Where are you going to get your money from? How
are you going to be looked after? Or they start from ourselves when we tell
Jesus that our case is a bit too hard for Him. It is all very well to say
“Trust in the Lord,” but a man must live, and Jesus has nothing to draw with –
nothing whereby to give us these things. Beware of the pious fraud in you which
says – I have no misgivings about Jesus, only about myself. None of us ever had
misgivings about ourselves; we know exactly what we cannot do, but we do have
misgivings about Jesus. We are rather hurt at the idea that He can do what we cannot.
My misgivings arise from the fact that I ransack my own person to find
out how He will be able to do it. My questions spring from the depths of my own
inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, let me bring them to the
light and confess them – “Lord, I have had misgivings about Thee, I have not
believed in Thy wits apart from my own; I have not believed in Thine almighty
power apart from my finite understanding of it.”