十一月四日
我的能力是在人的软弱上显得完全。（林后12：9）
我们要在服侍神的事上成功，要使神的工作完美而兴盛，就必须感到自己的软弱。神的军兵若凭著自己的能力走上前去，夸口说：“我知道我必得胜，我的右手和我得胜的刀剑就能使我得胜”；失败已经离他不远了。神绝不与靠自己能力的人同去的。他认爲这样就可得胜，其实乃是错误，因爲“万军之耶和华说：不是倚靠势力，不是倚靠才能，乃是倚靠我的灵方能成事。”上前争战的人，若夸耀自己的力量，归来时必然旗帜偃倒，甲胄蒙尘。服侍神的人必须靠他的方法、他的力量来服侍他，不然他必不接纳他们的服侍。
凡人所作的一切事，若无神的帮助，神就不当作是自己的事。他必丢弃地所结的果子；他只收割从那天上所撒的种，受恩典所浇灌，被神爱的日光所照射的庄稼。神在充满你以前，必先倒空你；他先洁净你的仓房，然后把他最好的粮食丰丰满满地倒给你。神的河满了水，但没有一滴是从地上的泉源来的。神在属他的争战中只用他所赐的力量，不用其他一切的力量。你爲你的软弱悲哀吗？
放心吧！因爲在神使你得胜之前，必先感到自己的软弱。你的空虚，就是爲了要得充满；你被打倒，就是准备要被高举。
“何时发软弱，何时当刚强；
基督爲诗歌，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.”
