6月25日 从忧患中找著自己
我说什么才好呢？父啊，救我脱离这时候，但我原是为这时候来的。（约十二27-29）
身为一个圣徒，我对愁苦困难的态度，不是求神拦阻，乃是求神叫我经过痛苦的火炼，保存他造在我里面的生命。我们的主在愁苦的火中，接受了自己。他没有摆脱那时刻，却从那时刻中出来了。
我们说世上不该有忧患，但事实上忧患却存在，而且我们还要从火中体认自己。若我们企图逃避忧患，不肯面对它，实在是愚不可及的。忧患是人生中最具体的事实；硬说世上不该有忧患是无济于事的。罪恶、忧患、痛苦的确存在；我们没有资格说神容让痛苦存在是错的。
忧患虽然把人许多肤浅的东西都烧掉，却不一定使人更完美。忧患可以建立人，也可以毁灭人。在成功之中，很难建立自己，因为你会得意忘形。在枯燥而单调的生活中，也找不到自己，因你会大发牢骚。惟有在忧患的火中，你才找著自己。为什么会这样是另一回事；在圣经中，在人的经历中，都证实如此。一个从忧患中找到自己的人，很容易辨认出来。你有困难去找他，必然大得帮助，他必乐于帮助你。一个未受过苦的人，多偏于浮夸，也没有时间理会你。你若从苦难的火中找著自己，神便会使你成为别人的供应。
祈祷◆主啊，借着你那不可逃避和满有能力的抚摸，今天向我显明你的慈爱，并在你温柔的大能中，按照你的计划使用我！
June 25 Receiving One’s Self In The
Fires Of Sorrow
“What shall I say? Father, save me, from this hour?
But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.” John
12:27-29 （R.V.）
My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is not to ask that they
may be prevented, but to ask that I may preserve the self God created me to be
through every fire of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself in the fire of sorrow,
He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.
We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we
have to receive ourselves in its fires. If we try and evade sorrow, refuse to
lay our account with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in
life; it is no use saying sorrow ought not to be. Sin and sorrow and suffering
are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.
Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness, but it does not always
make a man better. Suffering either gives me my self or it destroys my self.
You cannot receive your self in success, you lose your head; you cannot receive
your self in monotony, you grouse. The way to find yourself is in the fires of
sorrow. Why it should be so is another matter, but that it is so is true in the
Scriptures and in human experience. You always know the man who has been
through the fires of sorrow and received himself, you are certain you can go to
him in trouble and find that he has ample leisure for you. If a man has not
been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, he has no time
for you. If you receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you
nourishment for other people.
