經文: 「祂又用印印了我們，並賜聖靈在我們心裡作憑據。」— (聖經·哥林多後書 1章22節)
很重要的一點，就是首先要界定信仰真正的本質是什麼？因為這包含了教化功能，以及完全生命的內涵；它能夠滋養茁壯內在的新生命，這是信仰首要的功用，也是它最終的目的。換句話說，由父、子、聖靈所供應的新生命，將散發無比的能力，驅逐一切的罪惡；當然這必須配合我們對真神的敬拜，且願意謙卑降服於三一真神的帶領，以及順服聖靈隨時隨地的引導。
信仰是一種內在屬靈的生命，仔細尋思內在的心靈活動，何謂「治死老自己」，何謂讓「耶穌的生」在你身上發動？不要尋求肉身的安逸舒適，倒要常常思想屬天的聖潔；若你常注意內心爭戰的變化，你就越明白救贖的真意，因為救恩的本質就是治死人的脾氣，棄絕肉身血氣的老我，讓上帝進入你的生命裡，讓聖靈動工在你的心中，讓耶穌成了你生命中的亮光；祂榮耀的同在將滿溢你魂，你也浸沐在祂的愛中，用心靈與誠實在敬拜祂。
聖經的總結，就是告訴世人，一切宗教的儀式，無非教導人捨棄更多俗物並放下自我，讓聖靈更多動工在你心中，讓耶穌的形像成形在你身上；就如同童女馬利亞由聖靈感孕，耶穌的生命就在她體內孕育成長，我們內在屬靈的新生命也當如此成長。
我們有多少時候思想在我們生活中的份量？進而思想真正的信仰代表什麼含義？它應該是上帝自己成為我們靈魂中的亮光！若我們牢記這真理，就會經歷到每時刻對上主的仰賴，以及聖靈向我們吹氣的實際，並激起我們對上帝渴慕的心，這樣的意願使我們能不斷敬拜上帝，向耶穌禱告，並靠著聖靈行事。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 8月31日)
作者：慕安德烈
編輯：榮華興
『 True Religion 』
Scripture: “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” — (2 Corinthians 1:22)
“Here you should once for all mark where and what the true nature of religion is; its work and effect is within; its glory, its life, its perfection, is all within. It is merely and solely the raising a new life, new love and a new birth in the inward spirit of our heart. This was the spiritual nature of religion in its first beginning, and this alone is its whole nature to the end of time. It is nothing else but the power and life and Spirit of God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, working, creating and reviving life in the fallen soul, and driving all its evil out of it. Religion is no true Divine service, no proper worshipping of God, has no good in it, can remove no evil out of man, raise no Divine life in him, but so far as it serves, worships, conforms, and gives itself up to this operation of the Holy Triune God, as living and dwelling in the soul.
“Keep close to this idea of religion as an inward spiritual life in the soul; observe all its works within you, the death and life that are found there; seek for no good, no comfort, but in the inward awakening of all that is holy and heavenly in your heart; and then so much as you have of this inward religion, so much you have of a real salvation. For salvation is nothing but a victory over nature; so far as you resist and renounce your own vain, selfish and earthly nature, so far as you overcome all your own natural tempers of the old man, so far God enters into you, lives and operates in you, He is in you the Light, the Life, and the Spirit of your soul; and you are in Him that new creature that worships Him in spirit and in truth.
“All Scripture brings us to the conclusion that our religious services are only so many ways of giving up ourselves more and more to the inward working, quickening, sanctifying Spirit of God in us; and all for this end, that a true, real, Christ-like nature be formed in us, by the same Spirit by which it was formed in the holy Virgin Mary.”
How much there is of religion in which man has his own thoughts of what it should be. Oh, let us seek to study what God counts true religion. Nothing less than this, – that He Himself, by His Spirit, should live and work in us as the Light and the Life of our souls. As we take these thoughts of God into our hearts, we shall see that a continual depending upon Him, a continual receiving of His Holy Spirit breathing His life into us, and a continual breathing of our heart and its longing after Him, is the life of Christ in us. It is this will enable us continually to worship, to pray, and to work in His holy presence.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 31 August 」
