十一月四日
我的能力是在人的軟弱上顯得完全。（林後12：9）
我們要在服侍神的事上成功，要使神的工作完美而興盛，就必須感到自己的軟弱。神的軍兵若憑著自己的能力走上前去，誇口說：“我知道我必得勝，我的右手和我得勝的刀劍就能使我得勝”；失敗已經離他不遠了。神絕不與靠自己能力的人同去的。他認爲這樣就可得勝，其實乃是錯誤，因爲“萬軍之耶和華說：不是倚靠勢力，不是倚靠才能，乃是倚靠我的靈方能成事。”上前爭戰的人，若誇耀自己的力量，歸來時必然旗幟偃倒，甲胄蒙塵。服侍神的人必須靠他的方法、他的力量來服侍他，不然他必不接納他們的服侍。
凡人所作的一切事，若無神的幫助，神就不當作是自己的事。他必丟弃地所結的果子；他只收割從那天上所撒的種，受恩典所澆灌，被神愛的日光所照射的莊稼。神在充滿你以前，必先倒空你；他先潔淨你的倉房，然後把他最好的糧食豐豐滿滿地倒給你。神的河滿了水，但沒有一滴是從地上的泉源來的。神在屬他的爭戰中只用他所賜的力量，不用其他一切的力量。你爲你的軟弱悲哀嗎？
放心吧！因爲在神使你得勝之前，必先感到自己的軟弱。你的空虛，就是爲了要得充滿；你被打倒，就是準備要被高舉。
“何時發軟弱，何時當剛強；
基督爲詩歌，恩典爲保障。”
November
4
“For
my strength is made perfect in weakness.”–2 Corinthians 12:9
A primary qualification for serving God
with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is
a sense of our own weakness. When God’s warrior marches forth to battle, strong
in his own might, when he boasts, “I know that I shall conquer, my own
right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory,” defeat
is not far distant. God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own
strength. He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for “it
is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with their
gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armour stained with disgrace. Those
who serve God must serve him in his own way, and in his strength, or he will
never accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine strength,
God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth he casteth away; he will only
reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and
ripened by the sun of divine love. God will empty out all that thou hast before
he will put his own into thee; he will first clean out thy granaries before he
will fill them with the finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water;
but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength
used in his battles but the strength which he himself imparts. Are you mourning
over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of
weakness before the Lord will give thee victory. Your emptiness is but the
preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making
ready for your lifting up.
“When I am weak then am I strong,
Grace is my shield and Christ my
song.”
