7月6日 异象与现实
发光的沙，要变为水池。（赛三十五7）
在一件事实现以前，我们往往有异象。当我们发现异象虽然真确，但在我们身上却未实现时，撒旦的试探就来了。我们很容易放弃，认为继续也无济于事。异象未能实现，并且来到自卑的山谷中。
“生命不是无人开采的矿藏，乃是地心暗处掘出来的铁块，经千锤百炼，为要模造成合用的器皿。”
神给我们异象，然后带我们到山谷去锤炼，捏成该异象的形状。不少人就是在山谷中仆倒放弃。只要忍耐，每一个异象都要实现。想想神无穷的闲暇！他从不匆忙，而我们却总是忙得喘不过气来。在异象的荣光中，我们一鼓作气去作工，可是，那异象还未在我们里面成为真实。所以，神必须带我们到山谷中，经过水火的模造，直至神可以叫异象确切地在我们身上实现。自从我们有了这异象，神就一直作工，要使我们成为理想的模样，只是我们一次又一次地从他手中逃脱，想模造成自己的形象。
异象不是空中楼阁，乃是神对你的心意。让他把你放在旋盘中，照他意思去转动陶造。这样，神是神，你是你，你就必然变成与异象一模一样的形状。在这过程中，不要灰心。只要真见过神的异象，无论你怎样设法满足于次一等的状况，神也不会放过你。
祈祷◆主啊，愿我们全然交在你的手中，帮助我们能够选择你的带领，“就是我们的神以我们配得所受的呼召”。
July
6 Vision And Reality
“And the parched ground shall
become a pool.” Isaiah 35:7
We always have visions, before a thing is made
real. When we realize that although the vision is real, it is not real in us,
then is the time that Satan comes in with his temptations, and we are apt to
say it is no use to go on. Instead of the vision becoming real, there has come
the valley of humiliation.
“Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And batter’d by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.”
God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to
the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley
that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we
will have patience. Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a
hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry. In the light of the glory of the
vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God
has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter
us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the
veritable reality. Ever since we had the vision God has been at work, getting
us into the shape of the ideal, and over and over again we escape from His hand
and try to batter ourselves into our own shape.
The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision
of what God wants you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He
likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in
accordance with the vision. Don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever
had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower
level, but God will never let you.
