8月28日 祷告何益？
求主教导我们祷告。（路十一1）
祈祷在人的生命中并无地位。我们常听到这样的说法：一个人若不祷告，他的生命就会受亏损。这个我不同意。受亏损的是在他里面神儿子的生命，那生命不是靠食物养活，而是靠祷告养活的。人重生以后，神儿子的生命就住在他里面；他可以养育这生命，也可以叫它饿坏。祷告是属神生命得滋养的方法。我们一般对祷告的看法，并不是新约圣经的看法。我们往往视祷告为从神求讨东西的途径。但圣经中的祷告，是叫我们得以认识神自己。
“凡祈求的，就得着。”我们在神面前埋怨，或与他辩论，或对他冷漠，却甚少求什么。试看有小孩子样式的儿女那种坦率大胆，是多么可爱！我们的主说：“你们若不回转，变成小孩子的样式－－”求吧。神必然成就。给主耶稣一个机会，让他可以自由行事。人非到了尽头，不会这样作。
当人到了尽头去祈求，并不是懦弱，因为这是唯一通往现实的方法。在神面前，只管按你的本相，摆出你那来到尽头的问题。每当你自满自足，就不会来求神。与其说“祷告改变万事”，不如说祷告改变我，然后我改变万事。神的行事方法，就是藉基于救赎的祷告，改变一个人对事物的看法。祷告不是改变外在事态，乃是在人的本性上行奇事。
祈祷◆“主－－我们的神、全能者作王了。”主啊，这句话是何等伟大和令人振奋。愿我因着知道你作王，而充满了宁谧的平安。
August 28 What’s The Good Of Prayer?
“Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1
It is not part of the life of a natural man to pray. We hear it said
that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. What
will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by
food, but by prayer. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God
is born in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the
way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in
the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for
ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
“Ask and ye shall receive.” We grouse before God, we are apologetic or
apathetic, but we ask very few things. Yet what a splendid audacity a childlike
child has! Our Lord says – “Except ye become as little children.” Ask, and God
will do. Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow room, and no man will ever
do this unless he is at his wits’ end. When a man is at his wits’ end it is not
a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with
Reality. Be yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know
you have come to your wits’ end over. As long as you are self-sufficient, you
do not need to ask God for anything.
It is not so true that “prayer changes things” as that prayer changes me
and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of
Redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a
question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man’s
disposition.
