十月三十一日
使我里面重新有正直的灵。（诗51：10）
背道的人只要还有一点生命的火花，当他恢复过来的时候必然发出呻吟的声音。我们悔改时必须有这样的心情，在恩典上要有长进也一样地需要这种重新的工作。开头时我们需要信心好来到基督的面前，现在也只有信心能使我们就到耶稣面前。那时我们需要至高者说一句话，需要慈爱的神向我们发言，好终止我们的惧怕；不久我们就必发现，当我们感到我们的罪时，现在还得需要神的话。一个人若不像开头之时那样感到圣灵力量的流露，就不会更新，因爲这工作仍是伟大的，血和肉在现时和过去也是一样的。
基督徒呀！愿你个人的软弱，使你热切地祈求神的帮助。要记得，当大卫感到自己无能无力的时候，幷不袖起手来，或是闭起嘴来，而是赶快到施恩座前说：“使我里面重新有正直的灵。”你不要因爲无依无靠、无能爲力就沉睡起来，而要以它当作驱策我们的鞭挞，使我们热烈地寻求大能的以色列的帮助者。
愿你祈求神的恩典，正像爲你的生命祈求一样说：“神啊！使我里面重新有正直的灵。”诚心祷告神的人，神必用他的诚实来完成这件工作。要多祷告、多生活在神的话语之中，治死那使你远离主的情欲，留心将来不使罪再起来。神自有他自己的办法；要坐在路边好当他经过的时候，你已准备停当。常常获取灵命所需，使你所蒙的恩不至衰亡；要知道一切能力都从他而出，要常常说：“使我里面重新有正直的灵。”
October
31
“Renew
a right spirit within me.”–Psalm 51:10
A backslider, if there be a spark of life
left in him will groan after restoration. In this renewal the same exercise of
grace is required as at our conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly
need it now. We wanted faith that we might come to Christ at first; only the
like grace can bring us to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the Most High, a
word from the lip of the loving One, to end our fears then; we shall soon
discover, when under a sense of present sin, that we need it now. No man can be
renewed without as real and true a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s energy as
he felt at first, because the work is as great, and flesh and blood are as much
in the way now as ever they were. Let thy personal weakness, O Christian, be an
argument to make thee pray earnestly to thy God for help. Remember, David when
he felt himself to be powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but
he hastened to the mercy-seat with “renew a right spirit within me.”
Let not the doctrine that you, unaided, can do nothing, make you sleep; but let
it be a goad in your side to drive you with an awful earnestness to Israel’s
strong Helper. O that you may have grace to plead with God, as though you
pleaded for your very life–“Lord, renew a right spirit within me.”
He who sincerely prays to God to do this, will prove his honesty by using the
means through which God works. Be much in prayer; live much upon the Word of
God; kill the lusts which have driven your Lord from you; be careful to watch
over the future uprisings of sin. The Lord has his own appointed ways; sit by
the wayside and you will be ready when he passes by. Continue in all those
blessed ordinances which will foster and nourish your dying graces; and,
knowing that all the power must proceed from him, cease not to cry, “Renew
a right spirit within me.”
