12月31日
昨日
以色列的
神必作你们的后盾。（赛五十二12）
脱离昨天的保证。“神需要用过去的事。”年终的时候，我们会期待地指望神带领将来，但回想过去，也会带来焦虑。今天对神恩典的享受，很容易受过去的罪与错失影响。可是神是管理昨天的神，他容许过去的回忆存留，为的是将来的属灵培育。神有时用过去提醒我们，免得我们停在现今肤浅的满足里。
昨天的保证。“因为耶和华必在你们前头行。”这是满有恩典的启示，神在我们失败的地方守卫，留意不让我们重蹈覆辙。若他不作后盾，我们势必再犯。神的手伸到昨天去，为我们的良心清除存货。
今天的保证。“你们出来必不至急忙。”在进入新一年之际，让我们不要急躁鲁莽、兴奋忘旧，也不要轻率冲动，只要从忍耐中得力，知道以色列的神必在前头行。昨天无可挽回，错过的机会永难再得，但神可以把这摧毁性的焦虑，变成建设性的心思，作将来之用。让过去睡吧，但要睡在主耶稣的怀里。
把一去不复返的过去放在他手中，然后与他一同踏进必要来到的将来。
祈祷◆主耶稣啊，“父一切的丰盛，都在你里面居住”；“万物都交在你的手里”；“天上地下所有的权柄都赐给你了”－－噢，我天上的父神，愿你按照你在基督耶稣荣耀里的丰盛，满足我一切的需要。
December
31 Yesterday
“The
God of Israel will be your rereward.” Isaiah 52:12
Security
from Yesterday. “God requireth that which is past.” At the end of the year we
turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt
to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace
is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is
the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn
the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of
the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.
Security for
Tomorrow. “For the Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation,
that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip
us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our
rereward. God’s hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for
conscience.
Security for
Today. “For ye shall not go out with haste.” As we go forth into the coming
year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with
the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing
that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable
things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never
return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive
thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the
bosom of Christ.
Leave the
Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with
Him.
